THE DUCHESS APPLE AND HOW TO HANDLE IT. 313 



THE DUCHESS APPLE AND HOW TO HANDLE IT. 



E. H. S. DARTT, OWATONNA. 



Before you handle the Duchess apple you must get it. That is the 

 first thing to do, and you will not get it unless you set it on favora- 

 ble ground. If in southern Minnesota you set it out without any 

 protection, it will not grow. I have known lots of thetn to kill out. 



Now, the handling, of course, depends upon the cultivation of the 

 orchard, whether it is carefully cultivated, well manured and in 

 good condition — and then you will get apples larger and earlier than 

 you will from a neglected orchard. 1 have had experience in that 

 line this year. In one orchard the apples were small and inferior, 

 and in another orchard that was young and thrifty we commenced 

 picking nearly a week or ten days before any of the other orchards 

 were picked. Those early apples I sold on the market netted me 

 nearly $3.00 per barrel, and the other apples coming in competition 

 with the Duchess brought me only $1.50 per barrel; just enough to 

 pay for getting them to market. In the first case I picked the 

 largest apples through the orchard. I would pick before fully ripe, 

 but pretty nearly ripe, and I picked all I could at that time. If you 

 cannot market them at once, if the market goes down, you must 

 either let the apples rot or else you must have cold storage to put 

 them in. Every man who raises Duchess apples to any amount 

 should have cold storage, and then place the apples in cold storage 

 before fully ripe. In that way he can keep them until the rush is 

 over. 



For picking apples I have an apple cart. It is a high wheelbarrow 

 with two long handles and two wheels at the foremost end. It 

 sticks up in front about six feet high, where there is a platform. 

 The men take that and run it right under a tree, and they say it is 

 handier than a step ladder. I put my apples in crate that will hold 

 a bushel, and then put them in cold storage. I can stack those 

 crates, and I put almost as many in the same space as bulk apples. 

 I set them all close to^fether, as close as I can, and generally 

 there is room enough for the cold air to come down from above and 

 circulate through the crates. In my method of storage the lower 

 crates keep remarkably well, but the top crates do not keep as well. 

 I stack them up about five or six feet, but the highest do not keep 

 as well, for the reason that the cold air goes down and the warm air 

 rises. I do not know that I can tell you anything else that will in- 

 terest you in this line. 



Mr. Elliot: How long do you keep them? 



Mr. Dartt: The apples are put into cold storage until I sell 

 them about the first of November. 



Mr. Elliot: What did you get for the last? 



Mr. Dartt: Sixty-five cents a bushel. Understand, I could 

 not have sold the Duchess apples at the time I put them in stor- 

 age; I could not have sold them for anything. Duchess apples 

 must either rot or be put in cold storage. 



