DIFFICULTIES IN PRODUCING A WINTER APPLE. 291 



DIFFICULTIES IN PRODUCING A WINTER APPLE. 



F. W. KIMBALL, AUSTIN. 

 (Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society.) 



I am asked to name some of the diffiicultiea in producing a winter 

 apple. I wish I could readily name the possibilities and could put 

 men in the way of producing them, as in time they will be pro- 

 duced in this climate in abundance and in variety enough to suit 

 any fair minded individual, I have not the least doubt. But what of 

 the process? The advent of the Russian apple has been of the 

 utmost value to us, bringing to our door without loss of time, and 

 almost without cost, the results of decades of time and, perhaps, 

 in ihe aggregate, of hundreds of thousands of dollars in money 

 spent in experimenting on fruits, trying to adapt them to a climate 

 quite similar to our own. In this work have been engaged many 

 matured minds of people as intensely interested as are the few 

 gathered here today to study and discuss all new methods of bring- 

 ing to the front, that all may partake of the results, that much 

 sought winter apple, that shall be the king of all apples in that 

 the tree shall be hardy, fruitful, and the apple the most palatable, 

 and with fair care, be able to resist decay till near the time when 

 the early apple shall again make us glad. 



It would seem that the late keeper is of slow development on the 

 tree, ^nd that in consequence it saps the vitality to such an extent 

 that the tree has not opportunity to store up nourishment to with- 

 stand a hard winter, in case one comes on the heels of an abundant 

 crop. We are now beginning to find a few varieties of the Russians 

 that are safely designated winter apples, that so far as we have been 

 able to discover are among the most hardy. But the claim is made 

 by many that none of the Russians possess quality. To some ex- 

 tent that may be true, but give us hardiness and late keeping, and 

 if we cannot breed in quality then we are not the enthusiasts I be- 

 lieve we are. 



For us old, grey headed fellows, the refuge of top-Working comes 

 in. I fully believe that many choice winter apples can be raised in 

 that way, but it is too long a road for one not an enthusiast, and the 

 apples must be produced for the thousands, not the few, and they 

 must be produced as readily as we now raise the Duchess. Then, 

 and not till then, will the farmer's boy and girl be able to eat the 

 health giving apple to their hearts content the whole winter long. 

 How is that coming? I firmly believe through seed production, and, 

 probably, that seed from the Russian apple, the flower having been 

 hand fertilized with the pollen of some of our best and choicest 

 American varieties. It may be that today the millenium is 

 nearer at hand than we dream. With the systematic cross-fertiliza- 

 tion that has been going on in our agricultural schools and among 

 enthusiastic and persistent horticulturists we may now have them 

 at our very door, and in abundance, though the chances are that it 

 will be an evolution and take several generations to work out. As 

 you cannot raise up a high type of horse or cattle through one 

 cross, it is not at all probable that you can develop an apple con- 

 taining all the good qualities by one cross; it has got to come by 

 intelligent and persistent work, but we have those among us who 



