308 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



er holding out their superior apples for over fifty years were they 

 brought to notice and, even then, by accident. 



But lest you think I am wandering from my text and failing to 

 give the prospective value of our Northwest seedlings, I would ask 

 all present, would any one here take ten thousand seedlings, even 

 after they have been grown one year, and agree to care for them 

 properly for ten years for less than one dollar each. Then, who here 

 would agree to pay ten thousand dollars and take them off the prop- 

 agator's hands with all the superior varieties that might be found 

 developed in the lot. I very much doubt if there is any one in this 

 room that would give twenty-five dollars. I should want inuch 

 more than this to take them off the propagator's hands. This, I think, 

 settles the prospective value of our new seedlings for the Northwest, 

 at least it does in my mind. Notwithstanding all I have said against 

 everybody going into this business blindly, I would say to such as 

 have means, time, patience, care and taste; keep right on earlj^ 

 and late and hy some hook, crook, or chance, you may possibly 

 succeed in bringing out some new and more valuable apple than 

 we yet have in the Northwest. By doing this, even if by chance you 

 find it sejf-produced and carefully hidden in some nook or fence 

 corner, it matters not, so you get it and bring it to the front. But 

 when our seedling advocates set up the claim that by their direct 

 acts they have or are about to produce a more valuable kind than 

 we now find in our Northwestern seedlings or than we can produce 

 at once and make a success of here by securing from our most con- 

 genial apple belt their best varieties and top-working them here, I 

 most emphatically^ deny it. 



COLD STORAGE OF APPLES. 



A DISCUSSION. 



Pres. Underwood: You would perhaps be interested to know some- 

 thing of our experience in this matter of cold storage. Our apples 

 .were carefully packed, screwed down and in that condition sent to 

 cold storage. The apples shrunk in the barrel and became so loose 

 that they rattled around the barrel and spoiled the looks of the fruit. 

 They did not ripen up enough before they were put in, so that I am 

 certain if we want to avoid these mistakes we must allow them to 

 ripen in the barrel before they go into cold storage. I am telling 

 you of our mistakes now. I was told 1 should use a regular apple 

 barrel. I had them made to order; I could just as well have had 

 something else made. I found that the regular apple barrel would 

 not go in the market. They want a three bushel barrel instead of a 

 eleven peck barrel. 



Mr. Dartt: I shipped a carload of Duchess to Minneapolis cold 

 storage, about the same as those mentioned by the gentleman, and 

 they were loose in the barrel, too. They were packed tight, but when 

 they got there they were loose, and they were so long getting there 

 that they were not in the best condition. My belief is that ordinar- 

 ily we cannot ship apples very far and get them into cold atorage 

 in good condition. These apples I had that experience with cost me 



