36 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WHAT IS THE BEST APPLE FOR MINNESOTA? 



E. H. S. DARTT, OWATONNA. 



Editor of Horticulturist: 



It is very essential that the people of our state should have a 

 correct answer to this question. A great many have decided er- 

 roneously, I think, that the Wealthy apple is the best. That is be- 

 cause they do not know about the Peter. I have Mr. Gideon's 

 catalogue of 1887, and the following is a copy of what he says 

 about the Peter apple: 



"We take pleasure in calling the attention of all lovers of fine 

 fruit to what we consider the best apple ever grown. Origin, 

 Wealthy seed, and in form, size and color an exact duplicate of the 

 parent, but differing in flavor and season, keeping from four to six 

 weeks longer. It is what after testing Col. John H. Stevens pro- 

 nounced the best apple ever introduced since Adam and Eve left 

 the Garden of Eden. The fruit adheres well to the tree, and in 

 tree is a little hardier than Duchess or Wealthy; yet we would not 

 recommend it as far north as some of our extra hardies, though it 

 stood top-grafted 1884-5 where it made four feet of growth and 

 bore apples the following season near by the Wealthy and somo 

 of the most hardy Russians that failed to bear an apple, though of 

 longer standing and having borne fruit in previous years. At the 

 Iowa State Fair in 1886 the Peter apple was pronounced by the 

 judges to be superior to the Wealthy in every respect." 



Mr. Gideon sold the Peter and several other new seedlings to 

 Bardwell and Haviland, of Fort Dodge, Iowa. These gentlemen 

 kindly donated a liberal supply of scions for trial on the Owatonna 

 Tree Station. It has received a very thorough and extended trial 

 and is certainly of great prospective value. 



On account of the similarity between the Wealthy and the 

 Peter, it is likely that the two varieties have become badly mixed. 

 The trouble of distinguishing between the two is perhaps the rea- 

 son why our society classes both varieties as Wealthy. It is cer- 

 tainly too bad that the best apple in the state should not appear on 

 our fruit list. 



