Laying Down Trees in Kansas. 105 



wherefore their amputation to facilitate laying down 

 was no longer needed. 



"The result of the last trial, shown in the pro- 

 duct of the summer just past, may be summed up 

 briefly in these statements : The trees are now in 

 good, healthy condition. The bearing wood is in a 

 compact head, with no long branches to be broken 

 down by the fruit. The shoots and spurs are, at 

 this writing, covered with plump fruit-buds. The 

 lateral roots are strong, while those at front and 

 back are no longer an obstacle to the operation of 

 laying down the trees. There was this year a full 

 crop of fruit, and such fine Crawfords, Oldmixons, 

 Smocks, Stumps, Elbertas, Columbias, Bonanzas and 

 Ringgolds were not to be found in any orchard but 

 our own in this locality, though in some favored 

 stations outside the college farm certain seedling 

 trees were in fruit in a limited way. We sold most 

 of the product readily on the spot at the rate of 

 sixty cents per basket for the finest early, and fifty 

 cents for the later fruit, the basket being the ordi- 

 nary ten -pound grape package. 



"The cost of putting down seventy -one trees in 

 the fall, including labor and hay bought, with the 

 expense of replacing them in the spring, amounted 

 to about twenty cents per tree, the labor being paid 

 at the rate of ten cents per hour, and the hay 

 costing two dollars. The average yield of the trees, 

 accounting for fruit gathered and sold, and allowing 

 by estimate for some stolen, was not far from one- 

 half bushel each, leaving, at the prices obtained, a 



