8 feet. This room is cooled by eight inch pipes of
galvanized iron, extending from the attic above to troughs near the
floor, that are sloping so as to carry off the melted ice. These pipes
are on both sides about two feet apart. The ice is pulled up into the
attic by horsepower and broken up small enough into pieces to feed the
pipes. The amount of salt used with the ice depends upon how fast we
want the ice to melt. A large quantity of salt cools the storage down
quicker. In practice I find that it takes one hour for a man to elevate
a ton of ice, chop it up and fill the pipes. They hold something over a
ton and must be filled every other day in ordinary September weather. It
will not do to let the pipes remain less than one-half full. When the
ice gets down that far, we have to fill again.

The total cost of my storage when it is entirely furnished up and the
present capacity doubled will be about $3,000.00. At present it holds
2,000 standard size apple boxes.

I find that it only pays to put in good fruit that in ordinary seasons
will keep until the first of March and hold its flavor well and give
good satisfaction on the market. Icing stops about the middle of
November. The cost per box for storage is as follows: Ice and salt, ten
cents. Interest on investment, six cents. I have figured out carefully
the entire cost of growing and storing apples, and find out that leaving
out the interest on the value of the land, it will approximate
forty-eight cents per bushel. This includes cultivation, spraying,
packing, and picking. The question which now interests me is whether we
can grow fruit good enough and stand the expense and compete with apples
grown in the other good fruit sections of the country.

Mr. Older: I had the pleasure of visiting this plant with Mr. Wedge, and
this man had quite a good many boxes of as fine apples as you would wish
to see. This was along the latter part of February, and they were in
fine condition. He had a lot of Jonathans and Yankees and some other
varieties I don't remember, grown on top-worked trees there.

The Plum Curculio.

EDWARD A. NELSON, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.

(Prize Winner at Gideon Memorial Contest.)

The small crescent-shaped punctures, so common on apples, plums, peaches
and other fruits, are made by a small snout-beetle known as the plum
curculio. The beetles issue from their winter quarters at about the time
the trees are in full bloom and feed on the te