NEILS HANSON, Willis, Brown county: I have resided in the state thirty-two years; have an orchard of 200 apple trees twenty years old. For all purposes, I prefer Ben Davis, Jonathan, Willow Twig, and Strawberry. Have tried and would discard Willow Twig and Lawver. I prefer bottom land having a clay soil and a north or east slope. When planting trees, I dig a hole two feet deep and four feet square. I cultivate my orchard eight or ten years, using a plow, and spade around the trees. I plant corn or oats in a young orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of maples or willows and cultivate the same as a crop. I prune to thin the tops, and think it beneficial. I thin the fruit when small, if the trees are overloaded. Can see no difference whether the trees are planted in blocks of one kind, or mixed up. I fertilize my orchard, but not close to the trees; would not advise it on bottom land. I pasture my orchard with calves and hogs, but it is not advisable; it does not pay. I do not spray. I am experimenting with my trees; I make a hole two inches deep, one-fourth inch in diameter, put in medicine and plug up tight with grafting wax over it. It is claimed to kill all the insects on the tree for four or five years to come. I can tell the results this fall. It costs $10 to try it. [Hear! hear!] My neighbors spray their trees when in blossom, and say it pays. I pick my apples by hand, sort into two classes, and pack in barrels, filled full, and marked with consignee's name and hauled to shipping place on wagon. I never sell apples in the orchard, because they [the pickers] ruin the trees. I wholesale my best, second and third grade apples to the one offering the most for them. I feed the culls to hogs. Hiawatha is my best market. I never tried distant markets; it would not pay, unless in car-load lots. I dry apples, put them in sacks and hang in a dry place, and find a ready market for them; it pays. Am successful in storing apples in boxes--made of lath an inch apart--in an arched cave. I find Ben Davis and Rawle's Janet keep best. I have to repack stored apples before marketing, losing about one-tenth of them. I do not irrigate. Prices have been about one dollar per barrel. I pay eighteen to twenty dollars per month and board for help. * * * * *