sixty dollars; the next year the gross receipts were two hundred and thirteen dollars and the net receipts were one hundred and twenty dollars. Then I began to cultivate, to plow and cultivate, and to mulch, and the next year, 1899, the gross receipts were eight hundred and fourteen dollars and the net receipts were five hundred an fifteen dollars. The next year, 1900, I continued the spraying, the cultivation and the mulching, and the receipts were nine hundred and sixty-two dollars gross and seven hundred and twenty dollars net. In 1901, the gross receipts were seventeen hundred and fifty dollars and the net receipts fifteen hundred dolllars; in 1902, the gross receipts were nineteen hundred and fifteen dollars and the net receipts fifteen hundred and fifty dollars; in 1903, the gross receipts were twenty-seven hundred and seventy-one dollars and the net receipts eighteen hundred and eight dollars. This was on ten acres, one half of the trees bearing and the other half barren, so that the net income from the ten acres, or four hundred bearing trees, on my farm is greater than on all of the rest of the one hundred and sixteen acres put together. By net I mean above the cost of packages and picking, not including previous cultivation and spraying.

That the income from the ten acres is greater than from the other one hundred and sixteen is scarcely a fair statement, however, from the fact that the rest of the farm is quite largely subsidiary to this orchard part, in the way of manure.

So, then, I assume that for one who has the proper location, the proper taste, and who will attend to the business, there is money in apples.

As to the question of location, I find that the one essential is what we call frost drainage. It may come either from elevation or from nearby water. In certain peninsulas in Michigan and in the belt along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario they have water protection, but if you will take a census of the largest and most successful commercial orchardists in Ohio, you will find that all of them have frost drainage of one kind or the other, or both. Mr. Cox's orchard, in Lawrence County, is on the hills from four hundred to six hundred feet above the Ohio River and has the very best possible frost drainage, the frost following the lower elevations. Mr. Vergon's orchard, in Delaware County, a most successful one, is about thirty feet above the nearby Olentangy valley and he gets the frost drainage, the frost going into the valley. Mr. William Miller's orchard, in Ottawa County, has the lake protection against frost, and it has very little if any elevation, as I understand, from the lake. Mr. Farnsworth's orchard, in Lucas County, has an elevation of thirty to forty feet above the rather large river, and he has the water protection and the elevation also. My own orchard, in Summit County, is about one hundred feet above Tinkers creek; and then on my own farm within a quarter of a mile there is lower ground, fifty to seventy feet lower.

One year the frost cut everything below a certain level in my orchard, everything-cut the young leaves on the trees, cut the young apples on that part of the orchard. That brought on the successive alternate bearing of the orchard. Those that were killed that year bore the next year; those that were not killed bore that year; formed an alternation, so that the apples now come every year on one or the other half of the orchard.

The location, then, is most important of all. You must have frost drainage, either by a large body of water near by or by elevation. The soil must be drained, either naturally or artificially. I could give some very striking facts on this if I had the time.

As to the preparation of the soil. The best preparation that I know of is a clover turf. Fall plowing is the best. I prefer that the soil should be rich enough to produce, perhaps, not a maximum crop, but a good crop of corn, or wheat, or potatoes, before the work in the orchard is begun. The trees should

be absolutely healthy, and if possible these should be from a nearby nursery. I am fortunate enough to have a nursery within a few miles, and the trees never know they are out of the ground from the time they are taken out until they are put in again.

As to the varieties: Only two early varieties pay for me, the Astrachan and the Maiden's Blush, the Maiden's Blush being a fall variety. Neither of them can profitably be barreled, and especially unless you have a nearby market, so that you can take them on spring wagons, it is not wise to use the fall or sum. mer varieties. Of the winter varieties, the Baldwin, in my section of the state, is, par excellence, the apple. I get more money from one Baldwin tree on the par excellence, the apple. I get more money from one Baldwin tree on the average than I do from three trees of any other variety. Next in order come the Spy and the Russet.

Shall we plant in the fall or the spring? I rather prefer fall planting. The ground should be thoroughly tilled before planting, so as to have it very, very fine. In digging the hole for the tree you will throw out cloddy matter, and in filling in around the roots you had best use the very fine earth from the surface, and sprinkle it all about the roots.

As to the laying out of the orchard: I set, the first thing I do, a row of tall stakes, six feet high, two rods apart, all around the orchard. These stakes are planed or white on one side so that they can be seen. We will suppose it is a ten-acre orchard. I begin at this corner, say the s. e., and with a tape line measure just one rod and set a stake, then two rods, two rods, and so forth, coming out one rod from the end. Then at that corner I measure across there one rod from the corner, then two rods, two rods, two rods, and so forth ending up one rod from the corner; then begin at this s. e. corner again and measure westward one rod, then two, two, two, two, and so on across; then begin at this s. w. corner and come across on this (west) side, one rod first, and then two, two, two, and so on. Then I stand at the first stake, we will say at the southeast corner, and sight across to the first stake at the southwest corner, and have two men with stakes about six rods from each, set those two stakes in exact line, then go on to the next and so on; then begin at that n. w. corner and sight across and have two men, one six rods from that (north) side and six rods from this (south) side and set stakes; and when you get through, at any point in that orchard you can stand and sight to two stakes on each side, or to one stake to the right and three stakes to the left, as you will see, also to two stakes forward and two stakes back. Then with a rake handle high enough I sight forward, sideways, backward and to the left and set a litle stake just exactly where the bottom of that rake handle sits. That little stake is at the center of the future hole for the tree. Then I come with a board six inches wide, six feet long, with a two-inch hole bored in the middle at each end, and in the middle at the middle, the middle of it being cut from the edge to the hole like a horseshoe curve. I put that horseshoe curve over the little stake, which stands exactly where the tree is to be, letting it go crosswise of the way I am going to set the trees. Pull that stake and put it in the hole at one end; take another stake from the market basket and put it in the hole at the other end; then lift the board with the two holes and the horseshoe curve in it, dig the hole and go on to the next, leaving those stakes all over the field until you are ready to set the trees. When you set the tree bring that same board along and put it the same way over the two end holes; put the tree into the horseshoe curve and fill around the tree right up into the curve and you have the tree just exactly where it wants to be. And this is the only way to set an orchard so that it will row in ten directions like the spokes of a wheel. It is absolutely correct if you have done your sighting accurately, but you must

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not do your sighting with one eye-you must sight with both eyes. As I hold this paper and sight with my right it comes exactly at the middle of that door, but if I sight with my left eye it comes away over towards the right of the door. God gave us two eyes so that we might look at both sides of a thing and get the exact point. I discovered, the first time I set trees, that I was getting away off by sighting with only one eye, and I call attention to it here so that you need not go over it again.

The hole should be dug a little below the level of the clay-not much below. On tile-drained ground it does not harm if you dig considerably below. because the water will get away, but if the ground is not tiled-well, do not set an orchard, but if you do, do not dig below the clay hard pan or you will get a mud hole and kill your tree.

I prune the roots carefully for bruised spots before setting the tree. I slant a tree slightly-well, considerably-towards the southwest, for two reasons: First, because the prevailing winds are from the southwest and in three or four years it will straighten the tree up plumb, whereas if you set it plumb the prevailing winds will top it over, and I would rather have a tree lean a little the first five years than the next forty-five years. I always slant a little toward the west. Some neighbors came out to my house this spring, to the Farmers' Club, and they drove right by the thirteen-acre orchard and they said: "Mr. Chamberlain, your trees all lean toward town," and I said: "I set them so on purpose," and explained the reason. In one year they have grown nearly vertical. The second reason for leaning the trees to the southwest at setting is to protect the trunks against sun-scald by the hot 2 p. m. sun until the top grows and spreads and protects it.

In setting the trees, of course, you want to use the greatest care. Thoroughly work the earth all in around the roots. Put the roots out fan-shaped from the center-like the spokes of a wheel-very carefully, and work the very fine earth all around the roots, carefully churning the tree up and down so that there will be no vacant or empty holes. I mound up a little around the tree in the fall and put a wire screen around each tree to protect it against vermin in the winter. I cultivate for five years, if possible, with hoed crops and supply the needed manure to keep the ground rich, and then use clover and mulch three or four years and then plow again. The malching I consider a very great advantage, but I do not think that with the ordinary orchardists it can be made to take the place of the first five years' cultivation or of an occasional cultivation afterwards.

As to pruning: Never prune to a crotch, nor to a triple crotch; prune to a leader, with smaller laterals out in different directions. If you prune to a crotch it will split down. I had a half dozen trees split down this year. When they come to heavy bearing if you have a crotch or a triple crotch they will split down. You should have a leader and a number of smaller laterals. The pruning should be almost every year, and the trees should be headed at the very first and nearly all extra limbs cut off. Do not cut off too many for the first year. The leaves are the breathing part of the tree and if you cut too close I do not think the tree grows so much the first year.

As soon as the bark begins to peel up rough, when the tree is eight or ten years old, I would scrape off this rough bark with an old hoe, and probably whitewash, unless you sprayed very thoroughly with the Bordeaux mixture the trunk as well as the limbs and leaves of the tree.

During the growth of the young orchard spray at least once each year with the Bordeaux mixture, and when the orchard is grown we spray three or four times each year, first with the Bordeaux mixture before the buds start out, second with the Bordeaux mixture and arsenic in some form after the

blossoms have fallen, not before the blossom falls; that is not so good for the spraying and it is worse for the bees; it is apt to kill bees. Spray four times, the third time about fifteen days after the second, and the fourth time about fifteen or twenty days after the third, using Bordeaux mixture and Disparina as an arsenite. Disparine is an arsenate of lead. It sticks better than the ordinary Paris green. I will not further describe the spraying, for every

orchardist understands it.

I mulch now my whole orchard carefully with straw or with some crop that grows in the orchard in the cultivation; taking nothing from the orchard now and putting a great deal more on it than I take from it. I shipped nearly five thousand bushels of apples this year, and you will see that although the apples are something like ninety per cent. water, yet something must be supplied to take the place of the fertility that is removed by the sale of so many apples, to say nothing of the growth of the trees; and I manure and mulch pretty carefully. For four or five years now I have been plowing once each year, growing very little in the way of crops, except cow peas or Hungarian grass, or something like that, and using mulch and bringing in large quantities of clean straw and straney manure for the mulch. There is this advantage in mulching with clean straw-that when any apples fall upon the straw they are not bruised and are not dirty and can be sold as "drops." My drops this year sold at thirty-two cents a bushel of fifty pounds in carloads-in bulk; and the picked apples sold at fifty-two cents a bushel in bulk-by the carload. I had nearly ten carloads of apples. In picking I use a dozen or more ladders and stepladders, the stepladders being from six to to nine feet high and the other ladders from twenty to thirty feet in length. The other ladders are pointedthey come to a point at the top. The bottoms of the side railings are V-shaped so as to stab into the ground readily and prevent slipping; the pointed top is to thrust up among the limbs. If the two side bars of the ladder are separate they will catch on the limbs as you push the ladders up, but being pointed they will run up anywhere and they will stand in the crotch of a limb, and the more nearly vertically you stand the ladder, of course, the less pressure there is, and by standing it very straight you can put that point in the crotch of a limb and pick from the very outside of the tree.

The apples are almost all picked from the ladder. I dislike very much to have pickers stand on the limbs, especially with coarse leather shoes. If they must go into the trees, I want rubbers of some kind to prevent the bruising of the limbs, for this causes disease.

I have not spoken of the height at which my trees are headed. I head them at nearly six feet high-five and six feet. The objection of some is that you have to pick all of the apples from ladders; but you do not. The trees "umbrella" down-as I may express it-and at picking time, although the limbs start six feet from the ground at the trunk, all of the limbs bend down and touch the ground and we can pick from the ground nearly one-half of the total, even on those large trees, and with the low stepladder we can pick fully one-half. That is the way the picking begins, pick from the bottom upwards, so that there is no falling off and knocking off of the other apples; as far as possible pick from the ladders and stepladders and not from the inside of the tree, for fear of bruising.

I instruct my men never to drop an apple into the basket; lay it down as you would an egg; the least bruising injures the storage power, the keeping capacity of the apple in cold storage, and makes a dead spot in the use of the apple. Professor Lazenby gave some interesting average figures with regard to the waste of apples, and that average varied greatly, largely because of the difference in the bruising as between the carefully picked apples and the apples bought on the market here and there. Handle like eggs.

We have seven hundred bushels boxes, in which we store a whole carload before we begin to ship. We have a thousand market baskets, which cost twenty-five cents a dozen, and with all of that storage we can store nearly two carloads and put right into the large barn and sort in very wet mornings or on wet days, ready for carring or barreling as the case may be.

Our sorting tables are about fourteen feet long, and thirty-six inches wide. and have a ledge running all around, about four inches high. We put on about six bushels, thin all over the sorting table, and work back the culls and imperfect apples that we are not sorting to firsts and to seconds, and we put all the rest in the basket. Perhaps one per cent. will be culls if the apples are properly picked and properly grown.

When we are done, with a wire shovel, covered with cloths at the edges, we shovel up the culls for cider, handling them with the care even that we do the other apples.

In barreling we select according to the wishes of the shippers. As a rule they say "select a little higher color for the facing," and so we run over the table and take about average size, but a little higher color, if any, than the average. That is their dishonesty, if it is such, not mine. The apples are sold before they are picked, before they are barreled at all, but the shippers insist upon this, that, whereas there shall be no poor apples put in the barrel, the color shall be a little higher at the opening end. In the bottom of the barrel, after the heads are nailed and the top is cleated, we face down with two layers of apples, stem down, and of a little better color, as I have said; then we pour on about a half bushel more and shake down very carefully. We use the market baskets of ordinary shape, market baskets costing two cents apiece, in sorting the apples and in barreling. The market baskets will go clear down into the bottom of the barrel and do away with any bruising. And, by the way, our tables are padded and covered with carpet, so that in pouring upon the table there will be no bruising; they fall gently upon a padded and carpeted surface.

In pouring into the barrels with the baskets we put the basket clear below and empty with the greatest care, so that there shall be no bruising. For every basketful we put in we jostle the barrel very thoroughly, so that all of the apples shall be packed in together and assume the best form possible to occupy the least space possible. Shake each basket until the barrel is full; then fill up about an inch above the chime-the top of the chime-and then press. We have two presses. One you swing an iron bail right over and work the head in and get the hoops down, and the other works with a screw. The first I mentioned is a little the quickest and the one with the screw is a little the most satisfactory. It holds itself right where you want it and it brings the pressure a little more uniformly. I like the screw press a little better than the other, although my foreman-who is a very rapid man-almost always uses the other press because he can put up more barrels with it.

Then drive the hoops down and nail the head and mark the bottom endthe end to be opened-with your own name, I mark mine "W. I. Chamberlain, Hudson, Ohio, Winter Apples," for example, and then I have stencils for all of the different varieties, mainly Baldwin, and then I put an "A" and a "B," if I am sorting for firsts and seconds, otherwise put the "A" on if all are graded as firsts.

I have given the figures, the gross and net receipts on the ten acres of bearing trees, four hundred trees, about one-half of which bear each year. You will notice that for the last three years it is considerably over one hundred and fifty dollars per acre net on the whole ten acres, both the bearing and the non-bearing trees, and you will find that that is a very heavy net income per acre from land that is assessed for taxation at about thirty dollars an acre. (Loud and long continued applause.)