carrying 400 barrels of apples.  One and one-half miles of this is over a well-graded dirt road, and two and one-half over brick and concrete pavement.  In our Clay County, Illinois, orchards we have two 12-25 gasoline tractors that are used for cultivating during the summer and for hauling apples in the fall.  These machines easily haul 110 barrels of apples on two wagons and make two trips a distance of five miles from orchard to town.

Loading Cars.—­I am surprised at the lack of knowledge of how to properly load barreled apples into cars.  Over half the cars going to market are improperly loaded.  The best way is to place all the barrels crosswise of the cars with lower tier to the right side of the car, and the second tier the left of the car with the bilge lying in the hollows of the lower tier.  The third tier should be at the right side again directly over the lower tier.  If a fourth tier is added they should be at the left and directly over the second tier.  In this way your apples are loaded to carry with the least injury to the apples.  Being uniformly loaded they are easily counted from the top after they are in the car, and your loader can verify his wagon load count after the apples are all in and thus prevent mistakes.

Packing Apples.—­The packing season is a busy one.  Often the grower finds himself short of help, and when this is hard to get he is sure up against it if he wants to do a good job of packing.

First make your estimate of the crop you have to harvest.  If inexperienced, get an experienced man to help you.  You need this estimate for two reasons.  You must determine the number of packages you need, which must be contracted for in advance, and you need to know how much labor you need to get the crop in within the time limit.  You should not begin harvesting too early, for immature fruit, poorly colored, brings a lower price, and you do not want to be so late that the fruit mellows up or drops from the trees before it is gathered or is caught by a freeze.

I will relate a little experience of mine in the latter connection.  In the autumn of 1911 I had a heavy crop on a hundred and twenty acre orchard.  The season was rainy, and we lost six days during October, which put us across the line into November with our picking.  The last days of October or first of November brought a severe freeze when the mercury went to twenty, or twelve below freezing.  This lasted two nights and one day.  The apples were frozen absolutely solid through and through on the trees.  As I had over 12,000 bushels, all Willow Twigs, unharvested, it was an anxious time for me.  The second day was cloudy with the temperature at thirty-four degrees, just freezing, and the following night it remained at the same point, for we were enough interested to note the temperature.  This continued up until noon of the third day, when the frost was out of the apples and we proceeded with our picking.  These apples kept perfectly and were sold the next