HOW WE GROW APPLES. 163 



nothing gives me more pleasure than to plant trees and watch them 

 grow. In talking about gi-owing apples I will have to take you down 

 to the sunny hills of the Missouri river with their mossy valleys. 

 Here we find the loess soil which holds the moisture, does not bake and 

 Is rTch and productive. It makes the best foundation for apples that I 

 know of in the state. 



A number of years ago I was walking through our court house in 

 FallT City, when Mr. Jack Stevens, a well known man of our county 

 (who on account of being tall and slim was usually called, "the tall 

 Sycamore from Barada") was selling a tract of land about thirteen miles 

 northeast of Falls City, near Barada. He called to me saying, "What 

 will you give me for this?" I did not know where the land was or what 

 it was worth, but thought it was worth five dollars, so I said, "five 

 dollars per acre." I then went over to my oflfice, forgetting all about 

 the transaction. In a little while Mr. Stevens came over to my office 

 and said, "You have bought it." As it was an executor's sale, I had to 

 take it. I went over to the county treasurer and asked him if he did 

 not want to take half interest with me and he said he would, so we 

 owned one hundred and sixty acres of timber land northeast of Falls 

 City and about two and one-half miles of the Missouri river. Later I 

 bought his half interest. 



Shortly after that I met the late ex-Governor Robert Furnas, of 

 Brownville, and was talking to him about apples. As I had been reading 

 a great deal about orchards, I asked him what he thought of that 

 location for an orchard and he said, "Fine, the Missouri river will pro- 

 bably help you in moisture and you will always have a crop of apples." 

 To post myself thoroughly I went over in northeastern Kansas, north- 

 western Missouri and southwestern Iowa and to different parts of south- 

 eastern Nebraska, talking with the best apple growers I could find, 

 getting all information I could as to the growing of apples, and returning 

 home determined to set out an orchard. Shortly after this I went out to 

 see Mr. Russell's peach orchard, south of Wymore. To him I owe con- 

 siderable of my information. With him I determined on the different 

 varieties of trees to plant and I think arranged with him for the pur- 

 chase of two-year-old trees. 



In the spring I hired about twenty men and went to work clearing 

 off the timber and planting trees. Where there were growing forest 

 trees in the morning there were growing fruit trees in the evening. We 

 did not break up or plow the land as the soil was rich and loose. We 

 planted the trees about thirty-three feet apart east and west and a little 

 closer north and south. We thought it would be proper and right for 

 the sun to shine on one side in the morning and on the other side in the 

 afternoon. In planting trees we usually plant two rows of Ben Davis, 

 two rows of Jonathans, two rows of Ganos and so on through the orchard 

 as we think mixing the rows that way helps them to bear better than 

 if all of one kind were in a block, however, we are not positive as to 



