6 o 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
KANSAS AS A FRUIT STATE. 
Phil S. Creager, Topeka, writes as follows in the last 
annual report of the Kansas Board of Agriculture, regard¬ 
ing the Wellhouse apple orchard, the largest in the world : 
“ Kansas is no fruit country,” was the old cry ot people, 
both in and out of the state It was started before there 
had been tests to prove or disprove it, and has been kept 
up to a greater or less extent since orchards and vineyards 
and small-fruit plantations have, by their bountiful crops, 
given it the lie direct. It is echoed even yet by the few 
uninformed individuals who are not aware of the fact that 
Kansas ships strawberries to Nebraska, Missouri and 
Colorado; grapes to New Mexico and Arizona; peaches 
(sometimes) to the distilleries of St. Louis, St. Joseph and 
Lincoln; pears to the most critical and exacting of 
eastern markets ; and apples by the car load to “ Quid 
England ” and other European countries. 
“ Kansas is no fruit country!” Perhaps not; but she 
has many men who have made fair fortunes raising fruit 
on her fertile prairies. She has orchardists by the hundred 
who realize more net cash from their plantations each 
year than the land on which they are planted would be 
worth with the trees removed. She has orchards whose 
product, by going into competition with the fruit from 
those regions, has made the commercial orchards in the 
famous apple-growing states of Michigan, New York, 
Illinois and Wisconsin practically valueless except for 
firewood, while the Kansas orchards still yielded their 
owners most remunerative returns. She has an 8oo-acre 
orchard in Reno county, a 500-acre orchard in Greenwood 
county, scores of lOO-acre orchards in Doniphan, Atchi¬ 
son, Brown, Leavenworth, Douglas, Johnson, Miami, 
Wyandotte, Wilson and other eastern counties ; and, most 
important of all, the largest apple-orchard plantation, 
under one management, in the world. 
The last-mentioned plantation is owned by Fred Well- 
house & Son, of Fairmount, and is located partly in 
Leavenworth and partly in Osage county. Mr. Well- 
house was one of the first men to attempt commercial 
orcharding on a large scale in Kansas, and he has made 
so flattering a success of it that he is known throughout 
America as the “ Apple King of Kansas.” His orchards 
now comprise about 1,500 acres, of which 440 acres in 
Leavenworth county are in full bearing, 800 acres in Osage 
are just beginning to bear, and the remainder, divided be¬ 
tween the two counties mentioned, have yet to yield their 
first fruit. 
The original plantation was an orchard of 120 acres, 
established near Fairmount, Leavenworth county, in 1876. 
Two years later, this looked so promising that another 160 
acres was planted, making an acreage that was again in¬ 
creased in 1879 by the planting of another quarter section. 
The first fruit, 1,594 bushels, was gathered in 1880, four 
years after the first planting. In 1889, 1890 and 1891, the 
plantations were more than doubled in extent by the 
setting to trees of an 800-acre tract near Wakarusa, Osage 
county. Since that, smaller additions have been made to 
the orchards, until now the total area in trees is 1,500 
acres. 
YIELDS AND PROFITS. 
During the fourteen years since the orchards came into 
bearing, there have been but two failures—in the seasons 
of 1892 and 1893—and the unfruitfulness of the trees for 
these two years is not chargeable to the unfavorableness 
of Kansas soil or climate, for the failure was general 
throughout the country, even in the most favored fruit¬ 
growing regions. 
The following is an accurate statement of quantity of 
marketable fruit that has been gathered each year : 1880, 
1,594 bushels; i88r, 3,887; 1882, 12,037; *883, 12,388; 
1884, 11,726; 1885, 15,373; 1886, 34,909; 1887, 33790; 
1888,20,044; 1889, 11,952; 1890, 79,170; 1891, 63,698; 
1892, failure; 1893, failure; 1894, 47,374. 
The largest profit realized during any one year, as Mr. 
Wellhouse informs me, was from the 1890 crop of 8o,oco 
bushels. The actual expenses that year were a trifle more 
than $13,000, and the gross receipts from the sale of apples 
were $52,000. The 1891 crop of 63,698 bushels sold for 
$16,493, and the cost of gathering and marketing was 
$8,853, leaving a net profit of $7,640. The 1894 crop is 
not all sold at this writing (February 4, 1895), but its 
value, calculating from actual receipts and present market 
value, was $18,716. As the cost of gathering and market¬ 
ing was $6,400, there is left a net profit of $12,316. The 
total yield up to date has been 351,235 bushels. The 
gross sales have amounted to $160,327. The cost of 
gathering and marketing has amounted to $59,991. The 
net return has been $100,336. This percentage of profit 
will unquestionably be vastly increased as the plantations 
which so far have been solely a source of expense come 
into full bearing. So far, the apples, culls and all, have 
cost about 25 cents per bushel, and as the average selling 
price has been 53 cents, the net profit has been the hand¬ 
some one of 28 cents per bushel. 
VARIETIES. 
The variety which Mr. Wellhouse has planted most ex¬ 
tensively is the Ben Davis. This does not indicate that 
he considers it the best apple, but that his experience has 
been that its cultivation yields the greatest profit. The 
thrift, hardiness and early-bearing habit of the trees 
making it possible to quickly establish a paying orchard ; 
the tendency towards heavy and reliable yield making the 
^ggrcg^te crop during the life of a plantation large ; and 
the size, color, freedom from blemish, and outward attract¬ 
iveness of the fruit, making it ready of sale, combine to 
make the Ben Davis, in Mr. Wellhouse’s estimation, easily 
first in the list of commercial varieties. 
But there is another variety, the Gano, which seems to 
be making its way into the place heretofore occupied by 
the Ben Davis, which it strikingly resembles, and of which 
variety many authorities claim it is but an improved strain. 
The Gano is as large as the Ben Davis, of even finer color, 
and the trees are as thrifty and as reliable in yield. Of 
the 270 acres which were added to the Wellhouse orghard 
