I fertilize my orchard with barn-yard litter; I also use fertilizer from the chicken yard, and would advise its use on all soils. I never pasture my orchard; it injures the trees, and does not pay. My trees are troubled with canker-worm, tent-caterpillar, flathead borer, and leaf-roller. Curculio trouble my apples. I do not spray, but my neighbors do, and are not successful. I pick my apples by hand into half-bushel baskets, and put them in a wagon, with hay in the bottom. I sort into three or four classes, putting the red, yellow and green in separate piles. I pack my apples in sacks, and haul to market in a wagon. I often sell in the orchard; retail my best at stores, peddle the second and third grades, and make cider for vinegar of the culls. My best markets are Elmdale, Chase county, and Marion, Marion county; have never tried distant markets. We dry a few apples; use a parer, corer, and slicer; it is satisfactory; then pack them in flour sacks; but it does not pay. I store some in boxes and barrels in a cave; am successful; those that keep best are Romanite and Red Winter Pearmain. Never have tried artificial cold storage. We have to repack stored apples before sending to market; lose about five per cent. Prices have been from fifty cents to one dollar per bushel, and dried apples five cents per pound. I employ farm hands at from ten dollars to eighteen dollars per month. * * * * * THOMAS W. SMITH, Baxter Springs, Cherokee county: Have lived in Kansas twenty-eight years. My trees were destroyed in the storm of 1895. For commercial purposes I prefer Ben Davis, Winesap, and Missouri Pippin. Prefer hilltop with an east slope. I cultivate at six years; seed a bearing orchard to clover. Windbreaks are not essential. Never thinned apples. Pasture my orchard with cows and horses. Prices during winter have been forty cents per bushel. * * * * *