310 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



please any. Also the Cross, a large showy apple, which makes the 

 handsomest sauce we have seen. Large pears could not make a 

 clearer, more tempting looking dish, and as they are somewhat 

 tasteless, any desired flavor may be used to advantage. 



The season of growing fruits being so short, it will be found quite 

 desirable in a family where much fruit is used, to dry a few of the 

 early, perishable apples. Of course, if we were obliged to pare and 

 core apples by hand and hang them on long strings by the kitchen 

 fire, few would care to take the time; but given an apple parer, a 

 large new board, a piece of cloth-netting for cover and three sunny 

 days, any bright child can manufacture dried apples that are not 

 to be despised. They can be used in making excellent puddings 

 and pies and even in mince pies take the place of fresh fruit so well 

 that few can tell the difference. 



As eating is such an important part of living, whether we "wade 

 in wealth or soar in fame," we have much to enjoy and be thankful 

 for in the comfort our apples give us, though the climate allows 

 only the hardier varieties. 



MY EXPERIENCE STORING APPLES. 



R. C. KEEL, ROCHESTER. 



" You wrote me some time ago, in regard to storing Duchess apples 

 in cold storage, and I have had my first and last experience in that 

 line, unless I can get a storage of my own. I had a fine crop of 

 Duchess,this year, 1896— they were as nice as I have ever seen — and I 

 handled them in first class order; I bought new barrels and shipped 

 them in car load lots, and put them in cold storage in Minneapolis — 

 and what do you suppose I got out of 339 barrels? I had to paj- 

 $22.50! The barrels cost me for that lot $92.72, or twenty-eight cents 

 each. 



"Our small fruits bore a short crop on account of the drouth the 

 two previous years, and so did the Wealthy apples, but the outlook 

 is quite good for a crop of Wealthys next year, and about half of 

 my Duchess will bear heavily if nothing happens, and my thirty 

 acres of black raspberries never looked better; so I live in hopes 

 that things will take a turn to the better. I have been grubbing and 

 breaking a lot of my old worthless orchards and have the land in 

 good condition for planting in the spring. Last spring I planted 

 about 1000 apple trees, mostly Gilberts and Duchess, and I will set 

 out more than that amount this season." 



New Mode of Bagging Grapes.— The bag is made of the cheap- 

 est kind of white cotton cloth of two sizes for large or small 

 clusters. A cluster is put in each bag, which is pulled up over 

 the vine, then turned over and pinned. Birds cannot pick through 

 such bags, water will not stand in them, nor can wind or driving 

 rain beat them to pieces, as is the case with paper bags. A hundred 

 cloth bags can be " run up " on a sewing machine in half an hour, 

 and they will then last for years. There are a few varieties of grapes 

 that do not need bagging, and a few that will not bear this confine- 

 ment, but most of the grapes now grown can only be raised in per- 

 fection by some protection of this sort. 



