J. W. WILLIAMS, Holton, Jackson county: I have lived in the state forty years; have an apple orchard of 225 trees of various ages, the oldest being thirty-nine years. For market I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, and Jonathan; and for a family orchard Red Astrachan, Early Harvest, Dominie, Lowell, and Winesap. Have tried thirty varieties and discarded all excepting the above mentioned. I prefer a rich soil with a porous subsoil and a north slope; can see little difference between hilltop and bottom orchards. I prefer two-year-old trees, with symmetrical form, for setting; when planting I trim all affected roots and prune lightly; set them inclined to the southwest. I cultivate my orchard as long as it lives with a plow and harrow--plow shallow; plant the young orchard to potatoes, beans, vines, and sometimes corn, using a one-horse diamond plow, and am careful to harrow afterward. I cease cropping six or seven years after setting, and plant a bearing orchard to red clover. I think windbreaks are essential; would make them of most any kind of rapid-growing trees planted in groves on the east and south sides of the orchard. For rabbits I wrap the trees, and dig the borers out. I prune with a penknife to keep the trees in good shape. It pays if properly done, and is not too severe. I have thinned my fruit by hand when of the size of hickory-nuts. Think trees do best in mixed plantings. I fertilize my orchard with barn-yard litter and ashes; I think it beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. I pasture my orchard with hogs part of a day at a time when the apples fall badly. Don't let them in at will. I think it pays and is advisable, for they destroy the moth. My trees are troubled with both round- and flathead borers, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray, using a hand sprayer, with Bordeaux mixture and London purple, when the blossom falls, for codling-moth and curculio. It has not been beneficial. I burn the [tent] caterpillars. I pick my apples by hand in a sack over the shoulder, and sort into three classes--first, finest; second, fair; third, culls. I sort from the ground or a table. I sell apples in the orchard, wholesale and retail, and have no trouble in selling my first-grade apples. I sell and make cider of the second and third grades, and also dry some of them. Feed the culls to hogs or other stock. My best market is at home. We dry some in a common dry-house which is very satisfactory; after they are dry we put them into sacks to keep from millers; we find a market for them, but it does not pay well. I am fairly successful in storing apples on shallow shelves in the cellar; Winesap and Rawle's Janet keep best. I do not irrigate. Apples have been about fifty cents per bushel, and dried apples three to five cents per pound. * * * * *