COUNTY REPORTS. 361 



only a part of them on these terms. Those planted after the first 117 acres were 

 set were grafted and grown by by Mr. Wellhouse |in the nursery row until two 

 years old. 



The method of planting used was to set the trees in rows 32 feet apart east 

 and west and 12 feet apart north and south. This required a few more than 100 

 to the acre. The purpose in planting close in the rows north and south was that 

 the trees might protect each other by their shade, and yet have plenty of room on 

 two sides. When large enough to crowd, one-half the trees can be cut out, thus 

 leaving them 32 by 24 feet. 



In the warm climate of Kansas it is important to have the bodies of the trees 

 shaded, and the same is almost equally true of a large part of the country. The 

 trees were all headed low, which not only served to protect the trunks and large 

 branches from the scorching midday sun and the flat-headed [borer, but affjrded 

 less opportunity for the sweeping prairie winds to wrench the roots and incline the 

 .trees to the northeast than if the trees, had been headed high. When I saw the 

 orchards last, about five years ago, the trees were beautiful in shape, and few of them 

 were branched as high as my waist. Some upright-growing kinds began to 

 branch as low as one foot above the ground. Instead of cutting out the center 

 when young, these trees were trained to have a central stem with branches 

 coming out at intervals in all directions, thus dividing the strain of the heavy 

 crops of fruit. Mr. Wellhouse says that up to this date five-sixths of the fruit is 

 picked from the ground. 



Thorough cultivation of the soil was practiced for the first five years and then 

 clover was sown. This was never cut for ha?, but a home-made rolling cutter 

 used to mash down all clover and weeds and cut them into pieces, leaving all to act 

 as a mulch and manure. On those rich limestone prairie soils it has not yet been 

 necessary to resort to other means of manuring. The cutter is made from a stick 

 10 feet long and one foot square, by dressing ofl" the corners, making it octagonal, 

 and inserting a steel blade in each of the eight corners. This simple machine any 

 one can make as cheap or as expensive as may be desired. In those orchards it is 

 used twice in the season— once in July, sooa after the clover seed has ripened, and 

 again in Septenaber, thus allowing the clover to reseed the ground. My own plan 

 would be to plow the whole ground very shallow every few years. This orchard 

 does not look so neat as those in California, but the clover keeps the soil shaded 

 and cool, which is what apple-roots require. It also has the advantage of cheap- 

 ness, but any such system will favor the growth of weeds and grasses that oftea 

 prove serious pests. Mice have proved quite injurious, as the clover and other 

 growth has aff"orded them cover under which to girdle the trees. Mr. Wellhouse 

 was obliged to adopt some means of protecting the orchards from rabbits, which 

 are very plentiful in Kansas, as I have reason to know from many years of sad ex- 

 perience with them in that State. My method has been to wrap the trees, but this 

 has proven very tedious, and not until I adopted a substantial lath protector did 

 this system prove dependable. In my last annual report, made while an official of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, this device is described and illustrated. Mr. 

 Wellhouse decided to catch the rabbits, and made 1700 box-traps. These were set 

 at regular intervals all over the orchards, and proved effectual. Such a trap did 

 not need baiting, for the dirk recess of the box was sufficiently tempting, and the 

 curiosity of the rabbit, and the trigger was so set that it would shut the trap by 

 being touched. 



It might seem that this was an expensive way to fight the rabbits, but it did 

 not prove so. In the fall the traps were distributed by wagon, and the natural 



