HARVESTING. Harvesting in this locality commences about the twentieth of September. The best method I know of is the one used by V. C. Mason, of Berlin, manager of Mason & Co's. marsh. He has all of his pickers engaged and booked before he begins picking. He employs a superintendent, who is over all, and is held responsible for the conduct of the employees. He also employs a boss for each thirty pickers, whose business is to take charge of his particular squad, and take them to such locality as the superintendent may direct and set them at work; see that they pick clean, and keep orderly and quiet; also to keep an accurate account of their daily, individual harvest. Each picker is furnished with a bushel box to pick in. This box is made as follows: The two ends are inch boards one foot wide; on the sides and one end of these are nailed, two to three inch by half inch slats, nearly three-eighths of an inch apart, and to secure more firmly, each end is bound with hoop-iron; inch cleats are nailed on the outside of each end to prevent splitting and serve as handles to lift the box with. He begins the harvest with a small force at first, and increases it from day to day as he needs. He first picks strips where he wishes to run the main lines of his railroad, and then the track is laid on these strips. The track is made of two by six or eight inch pine scantling, notched at the ends so as to halve on each other; inch boards are nailed to the bottom of the scantling, covering one-half of the space between the rails and serve as ties. This track can easily be taken up or laid down in sections. All is gathered up at close of picking and housed or piled outside.

HANDLING FRUIT.-The rule holds as good with cranberries as with any other varieties of fruit. The least possible and the more careful the handling the better. The slatted bushel-box if used all the way through serves most admirably in this respect. When they are filled with berries they are set back by the boss and credit given for picking. They are finally gathered up by car men, and taken by rail, on small, platform cars, to the store-house by the marsh, and from thence by wagon to their store-house in Berlin. CURING. To get the crop to market in good condition is of great importance to the grower. After getting a fine crop of berries, many have suffered in not having sufficient storage and have piled up the berries in such large quantities as to cause the fruit to sweat and heat so as to destroy the enamel on the surface of the

berry, after which more or less of them will commence to rot, and hence cannot be in fine condition when in market. An improvement on this plan is to store them in shallow bins, arranged one above the other, slanting backward and so arranged as to be drawn out from all the bins. But I regard the bushel slatted-box, before described, as far the best way to store. Fruit in this box can't heat or sweat, and the boxes can be piled up like bricks, putting slats on every tier; so that the air can circulate freely among them and cure the fruit perfectly.

A word to growers and cultivators in regard to the varieties. On examination of most any marsh which is stocked with vines, we find a number of distinct varieties of fruit, differing in size, shape, season and in solidity. The best berry is one that has a good form, is early in its season of ripening, solid and meaty, and a prolific bearer. The young grower especially may derive benefit by starting plats of vines, from selections of the best varieties that he can find. I hope we may, ere long, discover some variety, which will excel all our common kinds. The present knowledge of the science of cranberry-culture as practiced by the best growers in the northwest, is very limited, but will continually improve. We need to cultivate a habit of close observation and study, so as to guard against losses and failure.

THE SIBERIAN APPLE-ITS USES IN THE POMOLOGY OF THE NORTHWEST.

J. C. PLUMB, MILTON.

The infusion of the Siberian element into our common apple is an event of great import, and one that we do well to consider in its widest bearings on our future pomology. When we take into account the fact that only about one-third of the area of our State dare plant anything but "Crabs," and at present only the four southern tier of counties feel safe in planting our general list of apples recommended as "hardy," it becomes a matter of grave importance that we, by any and all means, secure a race of apples that will extend this area of success to its farthest limits, even to

the remotest corner of our State; and, especially, to supply the great agricultural and timber regions of central Wisconsin with. safe and sure apples.

Our present race of choice apples proves quite satisfactory for the southern portion of the State, but in view of the destitution of so great a part of our commonwealth, we should explore every avenue promising improvement in the direction of adaptation. The entire effort of pomologists for the last century, both in this country as well as in Europe, has been in the direction of quality of fruit. These efforts have been a success, for better apples could not be desired. But the process of refinement of fruit has also been one of weakening of physical structure, and we of the northwest must go back to first principles, and infuse the northern element into our fruit-trees, as we have done in our people. In our pomology we are restricted to comparatively few of the hardiest varieties for general culture south of the forty-second parallel, while above that, the case seems yet hopeless for any considerable number of our common apples to flourish. This leaves the great northwest fruitless, so far as home-production of the apple is concerned. This experience has been burned into us by great and severe losses of trees, both to the nurseryman and farmer. But with the advent of the Siberian family comes hope. Its special qualities of vigor and hardiness, early maturity of wood, and early fruiting, give it especial value in its purity, or as a fertilizer in the production of hybrids. It is especially valuable in this respect for its concentrated character, firmness of wood. and rich juices.

ORIGIN. Of the origin of this species we have no very positive knowledge, but while the Pyrus Malus, or common apple, came from southern Europe or western Asia, the P. baccato, or Siberian family evidently had a northern origin. The evidence of this is more internal than historical. Our best historians cannot trace the improved apple to its transition from the native crab of Europe or Asia, nor the Siberian family, as we know it; showing that the amelioration of a species from its native wildness may be, not so much a gradual change, as a sudden impulse or "sport," which breaks over all previous rules of transmission. However this may be, we now find this species a most valuable adjunct, not alone from its inherent concentration of power, but from its possessing so many good points in its general make-up.

IMPROVEMENT AND PROGRESS.-Whatever may have been the origin of the Siberian family as we know it, we find it especially adapted to our purpose as an improver of species, being a strong impregnator of the qualities before named, giving a concentration of good qualities beyond any other available source. The progress of improvement has been hitherto very slow and uncertain, as if by accident. Our quick summers and warm autumns have exerted a genial influence, apparent in the improved quality of the old varieties as grown in the west, but under the process of hybridization does the special value of this species appear. This process has, we think, been used back-handed (i. e. from female to male), looking to the product of Siberian seeds for the improved variety. The chances for improvement this way are almost nothing, as the early bloom of the Siberian family secures self-impregnation before the flower of the common apple appears. Reverse this process, and we have the chances largely in favor of securing impregnation of the common apple from the more advanced pollen of the Siberian that is grown or brought in proximity to it. Therefore, instead of planting crab-seeds, plant from the most desirable apples grown near the Siberian, and look for improved quality in the product. We do not propose here to discuss the many intricate theories of "improvement of the species," but refer to this one point as essential in this line of improvement. This subject opens an interesting field of experiment to the careful student of "art in nature."

With the advent of the Transcendent and Hislop came the hope of still further improvement in that direction, to meet the demand for all seasons and flavors. This increasing demand has stimulated every enterprising member of our profession to active search for something new in this line, and large numbers of new varieties have been brought to notice. Previous to 1868, none of our standard authors gave this family more than a passing notice, as "for ornament and preserves." In this year Dr. C. Andrews brought his Marengos" prominently before the public, and gave an impetus to this new feature of fruit-growing. Since, yearly additions have been made to the list by various persons, each claiming merit, and onward progress has been made until all the old favorites have been discarded except the Transcendent which still stands as a test of quality for cooking. The Brier Sweet and Sylvan Sweet are the first pure sweet sorts, of good size and texture, brought out, and they well meet

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the universal demand for this class, but we need still, the pure sweet hybrids that will go with our sub acid and tart varieties through autumn and winter.

Fruit medium to large size; round, very smooth; pale yellow, mostly covered with bright blush or stripes; stem slender; cavity small; calyx closed, in shallow basin; core and seeds small; flesh fine grained, firm, juicy, sub-acid, becoming nearly sweet in spring; entirely free from astringency or "crab-taste;" excellent cooking or eating, from October to March, keeping well through winter. It is a beautiful, free grower, resembling the Fall Stripe or Saxton, of which it is a seedling, fertilized from the old large, red crab, grown from seed planted about 1855, in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, from fruit grown by J. C. Plumb.

Among the most promising new varieties are those brought out by Mr. Peffer and Mr. Putnam, of our State, and some very promising ones from Minnesota. We need not enumerate the many very worthy varieties known in the west, for at the present rate of improvement the favorites of to-day may be displaced next year by the close scrutiny of the public taste and professional interest of growers. Our own careful observations of over two hundred varie