This year there is so much fruit other than grapes that the latter bring very low prices, and growers are despondent. Apples--"New York apples" are famous, you know--are so plentiful that people are not picking them at all. The trees are breaking with the load of them. They rot on the ground. One cannot even give them away. Thousands of bushels are useless, and every one says: "Oh, if some people in the cities only had them! We would rather see them do somebody good." Do you who live in the cities have to pay anything for apples now? If you do, it seems strange to us, for we can get nothing for them. They do not fetch enough to pay railway freights, not to mention picking and packing. The same is true of grapes almost. Activity reigns, but so do "the blues." I think almost any business is better than grape-growing. ERNEST SPENCER. BROCTON, N. Y. * * * * * Mounting Bird-feather Collections. In your issue of September 22 last Sir Knight Jay F. Hammond asked how to mount his bird-feather collections. I send a copy of the way Mrs. Brightwen describes her method, taken from her "More About Wild Nature." RAYMOND A. BEARDSLEE, R.T.K. HARTFORD, CONN. "The feathers should be mounted in a blank album of about fifty pages, eleven inches wide by sixteen, so as to make an upright page which will take in long tail feathers. Cartridge-paper of various pale tints is best, as one can choose the ground that will best set off the colors of the feathers. Every other page may be white, and about three black sheets will be useful for swan, albatross, and other white-plumaged birds. "The only working-tools required are sharp scissors and a razor, some very thick strong gum arabic, a little water, and a duster in case of fingers becoming sticky. "Each page is to receive the feathers of only one bird. A common wood-pigeon is an easy bird to begin with, and readily obtained at any poulterers. Draw out the tail feathers and place them quite flat in some paper until required; do the same with the right wing and the left, keeping each separate, and putting a mark on each that you may know which they contain; the back, the breast, the fluffy feathers beneath--all should be neatly folded in paper and marked, and this can be done in the evening or at odd times; but placing the feathers on the pages ought to be daylight work, that the colors may be studied. Now open the tail-feather packet, and with the razor carefully pare away the quill at the back of each feather, leaving only the soft web, which will be perfectly flat when gummed upon the page. When all the packets are thus prepared (it is only the quill feathers that require the razor), then we may begin.