I pick apples by hand; drop them into a sack hung over the shoulder; when the sack is full, it is emptied onto a sorting table. Make two classes of fruit: No. 1 and culls. Have never used any package but the barrel. Prefer the full-sized flour barrel. Fill barrel full enough to prevent rattling, when head is pressed in; mark faced head with variety, quality, and my name and address. Have never sold crop in orchard; often sell culls there. Have never sold a greater amount than one car-load at one time; have sold as little as one peck. The best market is sometimes at one place, sometimes at another. Minneapolis is the most distant market I have ever tried. Have mostly put my apples in cold storage. About one time out of three they have kept well. The fault was not in the apples; cold storage is either not understood or frequently mismanaged. Cold-storage people should be made to guarantee their work!--should not be paid for apples that are not delivered in the spring. Cold-storage rates (fifty cents per barrel) are absurdly high. I use male help, young and old, good and bad. Help commonly hard to get here in the fall. Wages ordinarily one dollar per day, without board. * * * * * C. D. MARTINDALE, Scranton, Osage county: I have been on this place thirteen years, and since coming here have set every tree now on it. Trees that I set out in the spring of 1885 measure six to ten inches in diameter. In 1895 I put out 350 apple trees; in 1896 I planted 250 more, part of them were three- and four-year-old, when set. I lost only thirteen out of the 600. A few of the Missouri Pippins bore fruit last year. I consider the following varieties, in the order named, best for commercial orchard: Ben Davis, Jonathan, Winesap, Grimes's Golden Pippin; and for family use I would add Maiden's Blush, Cooper's Early White, Missouri Pippin, and Rawle's Janet. I have tried and discarded Smith's Cider and Lowell, as they blight too much. I prefer bottom land if it is properly drained, as it is apt to be richer and the trees will not suffer as much in a dry season--black loam, with a porous subsoil, to let the surplus water soak away. I think a northern slope best, as the trees do not suffer as much from the sun on hot summer days. Apple trees have done best for me on a black loam underlaid with a porous subsoil that will take the surplus water and still hold moisture in summer.