324 ANNUAL REPOET 



attended to. They are sometimes picked in quart boxes but are gen- 

 erally handled in baskets of larger size. Currants should be picked in 

 bunches and shipped on the stem. If torn from the stem the skin is 

 broken and they soon decay. 



PROPAGATION. 



Currant and gooseberry bushes are easily propagated by cuttings 

 and layers. Cuttings are best cut in the fall during the month of Sep- 

 tember. They are made of the last year's wood and should be about 

 eight inches long, and should be planted at once in a rich moist soil, 

 and the ground pressed firm about them. 



Only one bud should be left above ground. Before the ground 

 freezes in the fall the cuttings should] be well mulched with stable 

 manure. 



Cuttings may also be cut in the spring or may be cut in the fall and 

 tied in bunches and buried or kept in moist earth in the cellar, but 

 they do not root as well set in the spring as when set in the fall. 



The following paper was read by Mr. Brand : 



THE APPLE. 



WHAT MAY WE REASONABLY EXPECT FROM IT IN MINNESOTA? 



By 0. F. Brand, Faribault. 



For the purposes of this article the subjects of cultivation, pruning, 

 location and soil are each too comprehensive to be^more than inciden- 

 tally alluded to. 



ORIGIN. 



That the common apple is as old or older than the human family 

 there is little room to doubt. Aside from Holy Writ apples are men- 

 tioned by Theophrastus, ^Herodotus and.Columella. The latter, who 

 wrote in the early part of the first century, describes three methods of 

 grafting as handed down to him by the ancients, as well as a fourth 

 method of his own. Philip, the elder, who wrote a few years later 

 than Columella, said : " There are apples that have ennobled the 

 countries from which theyjcame, and our {best varieties will honor 

 their first grafters forever; such as took their names from Matius, 

 Cestius, Manlius and Claudius." Speaking of apples at Rome, he 



