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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE CATHARINE. 

 By O. F Brand, Faribault. 



This is the oldest and largest seedling apple tree in the Northwest. 

 The seed from which it grew was brought from Canada, in the fall of 1854, 

 by Jacob Klein, of the town of Union, Houston county, Minn. The 

 orchard where the seed was procured were all seedlings, and at that time 

 there were trees there that had borne 80 bushels each. The Catharine is 

 growing six miles south of the Root river and ten miles west of the Miss- 

 issippi, at Brownsville, Minn. It is on an eastern and southeastern ex- 

 posure. The elevation is about 450 feet above the valleys and 1,150 feet 

 above the sea. It was transplanted when about five or six years old. The 

 soil is a heavy clay among the native timber, being white and black oak 

 and shellbark hickory. 



The spread of the top is 30 feet. One foot from the ground the Cath- 

 arine is 50 inches in circumference, and the smallest measurement of the 

 trunk is 44 inches. It is four feet to the forks, where it branches into three 

 limbs which measure 21, 29 and 33 inches in circumference, the largest 

 limb, eleven inches in diameter, is on the south side of the tree. The 

 tree leans a little toward the northeast, still there are no evidences of sun 

 scald upon it. There is no other tree within 40 feet of it. Mr. J. S. Har- 

 ris says he thinks he has seen 30 bushels of fruit on it at one time. Six- 

 teen limbs from one to one and one-half inch in diameter have been cut 

 from the tree in the last three years, and the wounds are healing over well. 

 It has been propagated but little, and is now growing in Houston, Rice 

 and McLeod counties. Mrs. Klein saved a large lot of seeds from the 

 Catharine last fall, and sent to Mr. O. F. Brand of Faribault. An effort will 

 be made to see if this seedling from a seedling will transmit its hardy 

 constitution to its progeny. 



