JOSEPH C. REA, Brenner, Doniphan county: Have been in Kansas twenty-seven years. Have 4000 trees six to twelve years old. I prefer for commercial orchard Ben Davis and Missouri Pippin; add, for family orchard, Minkler. Discarded Lawver because it did not bear. I prefer side-hill, clay loam, with a north slope. Prefer trees without forks, and plant a little deeper than in the nursery. I cultivate with the plow and cultivator until they begin to bear. I plant a young orchard to corn, a bearing orchard to clover, and cease cropping when they begin to bear. Windbreaks are not essential. I wrap my trees with corn-stalks to protect from rabbits. I prune to improve the fruit, and think it beneficial. Never dry apples. Think that if Jonathans are planted near other trees they are better, bigger, and fuller. Winesap and Chenango Strawberry are varieties adjoining mine. Do not fertilize; would not advise its use. Do not pasture orchard; not advisable. My trees are troubled with buffalo tree-hopper. I dig borers out. I pick by hand and sort from a table. I sort into three classes--first, the fairest and reddest; second, smaller and paler; third, rough and poor. I prefer three-bushel barrels to pack in; fill as full as possible, and mark with my name. I sell in orchard, also wholesale. Leave culls on ground. My best market is home; the buyers come and get them. I store in barrels, and find that Minkler and Mammoth Black Twig keep best. I got $1000 for 805 barrels last year. I employ young men and boys, and pay $1.25 to $1.50 per day. * * * * * ELI HOFFMAN, Donegal, Dickinson county: Have been in Kansas nineteen years. Have 500 apple trees, nine years planted, made up of 150 Ben Davis, 150 Missouri Pippin, 75 Winesap, and 125 of summer and fall varieties. I prefer bottom land; don't want hilltop, unless level; don't want any slope; would subsoil the year before planting, then plant twenty-four feet apart each way the following year. Grow corn or potatoes the first four years, and after that, nothing. Cultivate up to nine years old; the disc and corn cultivator are good the first years; I keep it as clean as a California orange grove; cease cropping after four years. I think windbreaks are necessary, and would make them of a double row of mulberries eight feet apart. For rabbits I put wire screen around the trees. I use the pruning-knife and saw to give air. I would not pasture an orchard. Have not sprayed, but intend to, with London purple. * * * * *