GIDEON AND HIS SEEDLING APPLES. 97 



is a longer keeper, Mr. Gideon having- kept it till the last of August 

 from the previous September, and many times until April and May. 



He has a good many promising varieties of new seedling apple 

 trees that promise to be of great value to the northwest, and as soon 

 as they are thoroughly tested he will put them out to the public. 

 Among the crabs he has one that is like the Transcendent in size, 

 quality and productiveness, and there has not been a Transcencent 

 apple tree on his place. 



Mr. Gideon has been troubled with the tent caterpillar for two or 

 three j^ears on his apple trees and has not had as good showing of 

 fruit as he would like. He says that when his best new seedlings 

 get a full crop again and his orchard has a full crop, he will invite 

 the fruit growers of the northwest to come out and see them. He 

 hopes to have 100 varieties of apples at the state fair next fall, most 

 of them being his own seedlings. 



PROMISING APPLE SEEDLINGS FOR MINNESOTA. 



J. S. PARKS, PLEASANT MOUNDS. 



I will not attempt to describe particularly any one of the " Prom- 

 ising Apple Seedlings for Minnesota" that I have raised. I have 

 never propagated in a commercial way from any of thena, and only 

 know from the actions of the seedling tree what might be expected 

 of them if propagated and planted in other sections of our state. I 

 have out of about one hundred bearing seedlings, say, forty that 

 seem to have merit and good qualities enough to recommend them 

 for trial. I find it easy to raise seedlings that have some good 

 qualities, but to get one with all the requirements of hardiness, 

 size, eating, market, keeping, etc., is quite difficult. Of course, hardi- 

 ness is thefirst consideration — no earthly use if not perfectly hardy; 

 then keeping — we have enough good early varieties; then size — 

 we have too many small ones now. Now that we are getting to be 

 of commercial importance and raise truit to feed the northwest, we 

 must have good shipping and setting varieties. We have at this 

 writing, December 1st, about forty varieties keeping in fine condi- 

 tion. Some, I know, will keep until April or May, and good while 

 they are keeping. 



The seed I used came mostly from northern New York and Canada, 

 and w^as mostly from long keeping varieties, which may have some 

 influence in furnishing so many good keepers. My plan was to sow 

 the seed in long rows and let them grow and die as nature dictated, 

 and depend on the " survival of the fittest" for my stand of bearing 

 trees. In that way all tender plants — and they were numerous — 

 gave way, some early, some later, and in that way only the 

 hardy trees were left to care for and to watch tor their development. 

 Out of about 2.000 seedlings we have about 150 that have braved the 

 elements of Minnesota extremes of heat and cold, and we expect 

 some of them to be of service for future generations. 



