A HARDY, LONG-KEEPING APPLE. 303 



is in now, and it has been kept under ordinary conditions. Speak- 

 ing of the development of winter fruit, the Duchess of Oldenburg- 

 and the Golden Russet are the grandparents of that apple. 



This apple I call my Duchess No. 4. Mr. Harris regards it 

 as an apple of good quality, and you see the condition of 

 the apple now. I think it will undoubtedly keep two months 

 longer. So I think it is quite practicable and possible for the 

 Duchess of Oldenburg to produce a good winter apple. I would 

 suggest to the people here that scientific work should be done with 

 this apple of Mr. Day's. This is a very large field of labor, as you all 

 see. Mr. Gideon, as he has stated here, has sent out some sixty 

 thousand trees all over the state that he has grown himself, and out 

 of the whole multitude of seedlings presented here we have nothing 

 that meets our wants. These may be few, but still we are in doubt 

 whether we have secured what we desire. So I introduce this to 

 show the enormous amount of labor it requires to produce what we 

 w^ish in this matter of growing good apples. I believe it is entirely 

 practicable, and I believe I can say to you, gentlemen, that we can 

 certainly make much more rapid progress if we put more system 

 and thought into this work. As you saw those apples at the state 

 fair, you saw a great multitude of small apples. la my experience 

 the apple seedlings I have grown will fairly average in size with 

 the cultivated apples I grow, and that result came about not by any 

 haphazard method but by selecting seeds grown of all the hardy 

 standard varieties. I do not believe it is necessary for us to be 

 producing those little crab-like apples if we observe the necessary 

 care. As I said before, the prospects of producing an apple such 

 as we want are very flattering indeed, if we only go to work in the 

 right direction. There are some varieties, I find in experimenting 

 with other apples, that are easily controlled with the pollen of other 

 varieties. The Duchess is one of them. Itis very easily controlled with 

 the pollen worked upon it; also the Malinda. I have this year in fruit- 

 ing four seedlings of the Malinda; all of them are red apples, and 

 one of them appears to be a long keeper. One of them, is about the 

 size of the Baldwin and an apple of good quality. I also notice it 

 hangs well to the tree. Here is an important feature in this experi- 

 mental work, and one that you gentlemen who are going to interest 

 yourselves in this work will do well to take note of. Do not go to 

 work experimenting with any variety that falls readily from the 

 tree. The Duchess is too faulty in that respect. If you have an 

 apple that is as good as the Duchess and hangs well on the tree and 

 is adapted to Minnesota, take that as a foundation, because it is a 

 w^ell known fact that apples of this variety fall readily from the tree_ 

 and this is especially true of all, I might pretty nearly include all, of 

 the Russian varieties.' There are of those Russian varieties quite a 

 number that might be considered apples of good quality that are 

 not good, simply because they do not hang on the trees ten days or 

 two weeks longer than they do; they fall before they mature and are 

 of no value. 



Mr. O. F. Brand: I have had a little experience in originating 

 ■^-arieties of seedling apples. Commencing with the Duchess of 

 Oldenburg, in 1892, I went to work with the object of getting a long 



