272 MINNESOTA. STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



HARDY APPLES FOR THE NORTHWEST. 



R. C. KEEL, ROCHESTER. 



Mr. President and members of the State Horticultural Society of Minnesota, 



Ladies and gentlemen: Our worthy secretary has asked me to write 

 a paper on apples. Now, this is a quite broad question, as all varieties do 

 not do equally well on all soils or under the same treatment; but I will 

 give the names of a few varieties that, from my own experience and care- 

 ful observation, are doing well in my part of our state. 



The varieties that I will name are known to most of you: they are not 

 new, some of them very old, but have been neglected. 



The Duchess, Glass Green and CharlamofE are good summer and early 

 fall varieties, and are a success nearly all over the state where they have 

 been planted. For late fall and early winter we have the Wealthy, Long- 

 field and others that will keep till Christmas or later. When "they are 

 gone we have the Malinda, Rollin's Russett, Rollin's Prolific and a num- 

 ber of Russians, such as Hibernal, Lieby and Red Queen. These will 

 keep till late in the spring. These few trees are all doing well in our part 

 of the state, and until I am convinced that we have something better I 

 shall not discard them. 



So much as to varieties. I will now give you an idea of how apples 

 should be handled, so that they will bring the most money. It is a sad 

 thing to see the hundreds of bushels of nice apples raised in our state go 

 to waste when there are so many new settlers in the western part of our 

 state and in the Dakotas, who suffer for want of fruit. We find it but 

 little difficulty to raise Duchess and crab apples, but when it comes to 

 handling them with profit it is a different matter, altogether. 



Of course, crab apples do not require so careful handling as Duchess, 

 but they should be picked before they are really ripe, never putting more 

 than one variety in a barrel. Market for apples should be looked up before- 

 hand, and as soon as they are picked and in barrels, they should be shipped. 



In handling my Duchess, I take my barrels to the orchard, new barrels; 

 I do not use anything else. I have found that it does not pay to use old 

 dirty barrels. New barrels can be obtained from twenty-five to thirty 

 cents a piece, and apples will bring about fifty cents more per barrel than 

 when they are packed in old ones. My pickers get instructions before 

 they commence, that they must handle the apples as carefully as if they 

 were handling eggs. Each one is supplied with two half bushel baskets 

 and a step ladder; they pick the apples clean from the trees and bring 

 them up to the packing place. There I have a man, generally one that I 

 can depend upon. He takes the full baskets and sorts and packs the apples; 

 places the first layer in the bottom of the barrel with nice, even-sized, and 

 good-colored apples, stem down. He handles every apple by hand. I do 

 not allow him to pour the basketful into the barrel. After the barrel is 

 full, a little above the rim, Iliave another man who heads it up; after 

 that is done he turns the bottom end up and puts on my stencil and the 

 name of the variety. No poor fruit should be allowed in the barrel; the 

 reputation has much to do with getting good prices. The windfalls and 

 those that are shaken off in picking are picked up at once and sold for 

 what they will bring. 



