Discussion on the Papers. 109 



In the first place, as we have to wrestle with these names, I would 

 suggest that Mr. Ragan get a catalogue of the varieties brought 

 from Russia, and when he gets so he can pronounce them trippingly. 

 Prof. Budd will have another lot. 



So far as our literature records it, the attention of American 

 pomologists was first called to this subject by Col. D. A, Robertson, 

 of St. Paul, in a series of essays, published in the Minnesota papers 

 from 1860 to 1873, on the subject of climatology in its relations to 

 fruit growing. These essays were finally embodied in one paper, 

 and published in the St. Paul Pioneer in 1866, and in 1873, when 

 the first report of the Minnesota Horticultural Society was pub- 

 lished, it was given a record there. In this paper the orchards and 

 fruits of the interior steppe region of Russia were mentioned and 

 described from facts obtained by Col. Robertson in the old French 

 libraries at Paris. 



A. G. Tuttle, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, appears to have been the 

 first to adopt the suggestions of Col. Robertson and obtain Russian 

 apples for trial. He sent over in 1866, and secured some sixty 

 sorts, through Hon. Cassius M. Clay, then United States Minister 

 at St. Petersburg. In 1866 William Saunders, of the Agricultural 

 Department at Washington, commenced sending American trees, 

 plants and seeds to Dr. Riegel, Director of the Botanical Gardens 

 at St. Petersburg, as a basis for an application for an importation 

 of Russian apples to America, and in 1870 he received, under 

 names and numbers, about four hundred varieties. These were 

 grafted and planted in the Department grounds at Washington, in 

 1875 and 1876. When the trees were large enough to cut, the sci- 

 ons were distributed to all parts of the United States and Canada 

 for trial. It does not appear that they attracted much attention, 

 except in the northern portions of our American fruit belt, and 

 here they were largely top-worked upon the Siberian crabs, and for 

 want of congeniality of race they mostly proved failures. Here 

 and there a farmer or nurseryman, better educated in pomology, 

 worked them upon Pyrus Malus stocks, and to this we owe the fact 

 that some of the varieties have been preserved for fruitage and exam- 

 ination. It appears, from what we know, that most of those four 

 hundred varieties were from the coast region, but a few were from 

 the interior of Russia. We have in this list a few sorts that are 



