422 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
culturist, among all men,is not making the nearest approach to 
this ideal, then he is sadly failing in fulfilling the possibilities for 
which God created him. . 
THE BEST VARIETIES FOR TOP-WORKING. 
J. S. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT. 
(Read Dec. 1897.) 
It is not good economy to grow poor varieties of fruit of any 
species or any short of the best, either for home use or market, 
wherever better can possibly be grown. The general condition of 
apple orchards in Minnesota and throughout a considerable portion 
of the upper Mississippi valley,has been in the past and stillis any- 
thing but satisfactory. In fact, the most sanguine of us have been 
compelled to admit that the outlook has not been very promising. 
Perhaps there is no other country in the civilized world, unless it is 
Russia, in which apple culture has had so many drawbacks and 
where the trees,as a rule, are so short-lived as they are with us; and 
the fact that just now apples are so plenty that they command but 
from one totwo dollars a barrel is no evidence that conditions are 
improving, for they are not home grown or many of them from 
localities near by, but are far fetched from what are considered more 
favored fruit regions. Again, they are still too dear for the times, 
and none but the wealthy can afford to buy them in needed quanti- 
ties. Itis very true, thatin some sections of this state last season 
there was seemingly an over production of one single variety, the 
Duchess of Oldenburg, which, together with inability of consumers 
to purchase for a short time, had a tendency to demoralize the mar- 
ket, but there was not fruit enough produced within the borders of 
the state to furnish one-tenth of the quantity needed for consump- 
tion or a supply to furnish al] the wants of our people, and had the 
crop been three millions of bushels more, and properly distributed 
through the season, at prices to suit the times, there would have 
been no surplus to lose. Even with the exceptionally large crop of 
Duchess, andthe low prices and limited demand at a net price of fif- 
teen cents a bushel, they were more profitable than most other farm 
crops; and all other varieties, or those coming later, brought better 
prices and were in better demand. If enough of them can be pro- 
duced to make up the difference between supply and actual want 
that arenow brought in from other states, it would save at least 
many hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. 
There are some people who do not believe that we can overcome 
the difficulties that are in the way of producing varieties that will 
cover the whole season, because our winters are frequently so 
severe as to winter-kill about all varieties except the Duchess, and 
some varieties of the Siberian species, outright or injure them to 
such an extent that it requires a number of years to recuperate. 
Meanwhile a droughty fall or extra winter cold snap may repeat 
the mischief and give another back-set and final collapse. The 
fruit produced by such enfeebled trees is liable to be meager in 
quantity, small in size and poor in quality. Iam not one of those 
who believe that the situation is hopeless, but I do and always have 
