380 ANNUAL REPORT. 



The following paper was placed on file for publication: 

 THE TRANSCENDENT CRAB. 

 By C. L. Smith, Minneapolis. 



After twenty five years of trial in Minnesota, tlie season of 1885 found the Trans- 

 cendent ahead of all other sorts in the State. There was probably a hundred times 

 as many Transcendents grown in the Slate the past year as of any other variety. 

 Each year some new variety is brought out as better than the Transcendent, but 

 somehow these never find their way into market. At Glencoe, last fall, I saw the 

 Transcendents brought into the market by the wagon load; there were also a very 

 few bushels of Duchess, but very few of anything else. Now the farmers in that 

 vicinity have undoubtedly paid out dollars for other varieties where they have 

 cents for Transcendents. I look forward to the time when our markets shall be 

 filled with choice apples and pears grown in our State, but until our experimental 

 stations and professional horticulturists can show a better record than at present, 

 would it not be good policy for every farmer in the State, who has not already got 

 them, to plant out at least a dozen Transcendents. I know they sometimes blight, 

 but, on the whole, they have proven the best of anything we have yet found. The 

 fruit is not equal to the Wealthy or Autumn Strawberry, but they are, oh! so much 

 better than nothing. I would not advise anybody to stop with the Transcendent 

 for I have hopes of something better, but I would advise every planter to begin 

 with Transcendents, and take care of them until they have something better. The 

 extreme hardiness of the tree, the readiness with which it recovers from an injury, 

 makes it a very desirable tree for the farmer to plant. The ready market and 

 good prices found for the fruit in the towns of western Minnesota and Dakota, 

 shows that there are many people living there who have an appetite for it. 



Any surplus fruit will find a ready and profitable market for years to come. For 

 canning it is very fine; dried it makes good pies or sauce; it also makes an excellent 

 apple butter. 



Still striving for something more excellent let us give a little more care and 

 attention to this much abused and slighted fruit. It passed through the severe 

 winter of 1884—5 almost unscathed; it can be profitably grown on any farm in the 

 State, and every farmer ought to raise all that his family can use. 



What a pity some of the farmers who have neither strawberries, raspberries, 

 currants or grapes, could not have had the good sense to invest in Transcen- 

 dents at twenty or twenty-five cents each, instead of Fameuse, Northern Spy 

 and Maiden Blush, budded on "French crab stock, at only a dollar, apiece." There 

 is no humbug about the Transcendent, therefore few farmers want to buy it, and^ 

 few slick talkers are trjdng to sell it. 



Mr. Smith announced that the next annual meeting of the State 

 Forestry Association would be held at the State University commenc- 

 ing the third Tuesday in March, and invited the members of the So- 

 ciety to be present at the meeting, so far as possible. 



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