MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 167 | 
THE TRANSCENDENT. 
_ Sr. Pavr, Minn., Jan. 15th, 1876. 
i 
To the President of Minnesota State Horticultural Society: 
I am unable to attend the annual winter meeting this winter, to 
be held at the city of Winona (which I regret very much,) for I 
know the Winona people will give you alla welcome and hospitable re- 
ception. May they ever be blessed for their generous actsis my hearty 
wish. Should the Transcendent Crab Applecome up for discussion, 
Iwish to say a few words in its favor. Notwithstanding it does blight 
in some locations, itis very easily grown, and I say if they kill down, re- 
plant them again, The blight is claimed to be only a disease, and not 
likely to last long. I think to-day that the Transcendent is the best 
thing in the shape of apples for profit that we in this vicinity have. Not 
that I am propagating them, but for the reason that Iget a good crop of 
them, and they sell more readily than all others. They are good 
. for sauce and pies in August, long before they are ripe, and they 
last till late in September, and sometimes into October. They 
make the best of jelly, good for canning, and dried they are the 
next thing to the unpared peach. They make what my neighbors 
call good cider, and we have no reason to doubt that it will make 
good vinegar. I have fifteen acres of them set in an orchard, 
which netted me thirty dollars per acre, less than one-half of which 
had been planted only four years, and the balance two years only. 
The four-year planted trees yielded, or netted fifty dollars per ac.e, 
the apples bringing me one dollar per bushel. Why are they not a 
God-send to the people of Minnesota? Hoping you will have a 
more happy and profitable meeting than ever, 
Respectfully yours, 
W. E. Brimuatt. 
PLANTING FRUIT TREES. 
An Essay read before the Minnesota Horticultural Society, at its 
Annual Meeting, January 17, 1871, by O. F. Brand, but never 
before published in the Transactions. 
We sometimes meet with those who say they do not care to be 
troubled with trees that cannot take care of themselves, or that need 
protection in winter, in any form. This idea would be a rational 
one were they to leave the trees to nature, in their natural home and 
under natural conditions ; but as the organic conditions of all our 
fruit trees have been materially changed by the artificial means that 
