ss. They ripen slowly and everyday picking is not
so necessary. Mr. Pearson said the apple growers in his locality find
that judgment must be used in marketing apples. The Lord made little
apples and we must do the best we can with them. A neighbor had small
apples and the shippers grumbled at them. The neighbor would not stand
this and shipped his apples to Chicago and had them sold on their
merits. The result was satisfactory. An Iowa buyer came down there and
offered 50 cents per bushel for apples without regard to size, etc., and
he got them and shipped them in boxes to Muscatine where they were made
into jelly, dried fruit, etc. We can have no cast iron rules in regard
to marketing, but must be governed by circumstances. This year it was
better for his people to sell as they come, without the trouble of hand
picking, sorting, and careful packing. We must act like intelligent men
in this business as in all others. Circumstances alter cases. Good
common sense is a prime requisite. Mr. Miller agreed with Mr. Earle
about packages for marketing fruit. He uses white wood boxes from
Michigan.

MULCHING AND MANURING.

Mr. Earle was questioned about the use of castor bean pomace for
strawberries. He uses it mixed with wood ashes. It is capital on poor
land. He likes unleached ashes in both strawberry and orchard culture.
He pays six cents per bushel for them. The castor bean pomace is good
for anything in the poor soils of Southern Illinois. He uses about half
a ton to the acre. Spreads with a Kemp spreader. Five hundred pounds per
acre will show excellent results. Has tried a tablespoonful of the
mixture to the strawberry plant when setting out. Has tried salt to kill
grubs in asparagus beds, but found it to kill the weeds and most of the
asparagus, while the grubs seemed to enjoy the application. Did not find
it of much value as a manure. Bone dust had shown no particular results.
Superphosphates acted much like the bean pomace. Does not think coal
ashes of much value. He uses the pomace as early in the spring as
possible. Sometimes he plows it under and sometimes applies after the
plants are set, and cultivates it in. One application answers for two
years' cropping. He fruits a strawberry plantation but two years, and he
sometimes thinks one year sufficient. He does not agree with some of his
neighbors that mulching has resulted unfavorably. Does not think the
mulch has increased the noxious insects. Knows of a planta