The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1896-07-10
APPLE KIiINeoP KANSAS (.
How His Vas. Orchards Are Planted
and Managed.

AEf16 hlWHiUI hAN0AOs
How His Vas, Orchards Are Planted
and Managed.
Judge Fred wclhouse, Of Leaven-
worth county, Kan, is reputed, says
F. D. Coburn, secretary Of the Kan
sas boa.d Of agriculture, tho most
extensive and probably the most
successful individual apple-grower
in the United States, and is known
far and vide as the apple king. His
orchards consist Of 1,630 acres; the
product in ID years has been upward
Of 1000 bushels, and the varieties
given chief precedence are Ben
Davis, $50 acres; Missouri pippin,
800 acres; Jonathan, 300 acres; and
Gano, 100 rres. Mr.. Wellhouse has
just finished planting an additional
160 acres, and the success that has
attended all his work makes his
methods Of much interest to anyone
setting q considerable area in trees.
AS related by him in brief, his pro-
cedurc, covering an experience OF 20
years, is us follows:
Using land in good state Of cul-
tivation, as for other crops (prefer-
ably, but not necessarily, a north
ern exposure), rows north and
south, 32 feet apart, are made by
turning straight pillow furrow to
the west and another to the east,
say 20 inches from the first; the
middle strip thus left is thrown out
by another round Of the pillow, the
last furrow being about ten inches
deep. In the bottom Of this dead
furrow running q listing plow with
subsoiling attachments and then
cross-marking with any device to in
dictate the location for the trees 16
feet apart in the rows completes the
preparation of the ground.
Thrifty two-year.old trees are con-
sidered best, although those year
older are not Objectionable. These
are taken up bya tree digger, run
10 to u inches deep. When the
trees are delivered on the orchard
land ready for planting, men distrib-
ute them at the cross marks, and
two work together in planting o
row; one stands the tree in its place,
and spreads its roots out in their
natural position, holding it, while
the other shovels the finer soil over
them. The man holding the tree
constantly tramps the earth among
and around the roots, until it will
firmly hold the tree in an upright
position. When the rows are thus
made ready, a team hitched with
short single-trees TO u pillow follows,
and in one round throws the adjacent
earth back into the central furrow,
filling it. In ten days or two weeks,
when weeds begin to show, another
round is made, turning a furrow two
or three inches wide toward the
tree, and a little deeper than the
first, covering all turned by the pre-
vious round; in q fortnight another
narrow furrow is turned as, before,
as deep, and throwing the Soil as fur
the ridge as possible, with a
view to smothering ally weeds
started In the tree row. This Is re-
peated at stwo-week intervals until
the middle Of August, forming CON
tinuous beds Of mellow earth or
tree rows about 8 feet wide.
elevated to 6 inches above the adj
jacent surface, u to Is inches deep
and in superior condition for the re-
ception of rains and vigorous
growth of the trees.
II the plowing and covering have
failed to keep the weeds in subiec-
ton, tho larger ones are cut out
with hoes, but this is usually a light
task. The following season cultiva-
ton is carried on by first blowing
the soil from and later toward the
trees, as in the preceding year, and
for winter leaving the land in much
the same condition as in the fall be-
fore. This cultivation is kept up un-
Til the trees are five or six years old,
or in bearing, when the land is
seeded to clover. st. Louis Globe
Democrat