350 STATE nORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY, 



The hardiness of the Dnchess, Tetofsky and Alexander, the beauty and pro- 

 ductiveness of the former, and the great size of the hitter, had raised the expec- 

 tations of our northern people to the high point; we expected great things, and my 

 experience leads me to the opinion that we will realize only little things. la 

 the first place they are not hardy like Tetofsky and Duchess, and if any of 

 them are hardy or nearly so, they blight, so that I am afraid to propagate them, 

 and I shall not grow them. If half of the people in the State become afflicted 

 with this Russian mania, I am cured of the disease completely, and shall con- 

 tinue to test these points slowly and cautiously. And if any one who is afflicted 

 with this malady, will continue to buy "Russian fruits" of "Tom, Dick and 

 Harry"' for the next five years, I will guarantee a perfect cure, and that he will 

 thereafter have patriotism enough to believe that there are possibilities in the 

 high-flavored fruits of our own country to entitle them to the first place in his 

 esteem. 



After relating his experience with individual sorts, he sums up as follows : 



1. Mr. Calkins was right when he said there were really none of the Russian 

 apple trees on the market. There is not enough in the whole country to sup- 

 ply one county in Iowa with the trees that would plant its orchards. 



2. These trees are not as hardy as they are generally recommended. 



3. They are generally subject to blight, though as I have said in a former 

 article, there are a few good growers that arc exempt from this disease. 



4. They are generally of low quality, not comparing favorably with our Amer- 

 ican apples in this respect. 



And to sum up this article, I make this prediction, and I want every young 

 horticulturist who reads this paper to remember it. That the future success- 

 ful orchards of Iowa will be planted from seeds that have grown in the soil and 

 climate of Iowa, or the States adjoining it. Exceptions there may be, but only 

 exceptions. 



ALTERNATE BEARING. 



This is the way the Massachusetts Ploughman puts the matter, and who shall 

 say it is far out of the way : 



First, of eighty trees grafted with cions taken from a tree that bore the even 

 year, nearly half of them came into bearing the odd year; and out of eight 

 trees grafted with scions taken from a tree that bears the odd year four of them 

 came into bearing the even year, and have continued so for more than twenty 

 years, and two of the other four have changed so they bear but few the odd 

 year, and one of the remaining two bears more the even than the odd year. 

 Second, a careful examination of a very large number of orchards has failed to 

 convince us that high culture will bring fruit every year. Third, out of thirty- 

 five trees started to bear the odd year in a i'ew years after all but five came into 

 bearing the even year. Fourth, in some cases, in fact in the majority of cases, 

 when the blossoms have been picked clean the even year from trees that have 

 been bearing a number of years the result has been to change the bearing year 

 to the odd year for a lew years, when they will come back to their former habits, 

 unless the blossoms are kept jiicked off tiie even years. Tne expense of thus 

 keeping a tree in bearing the odd year is quite as much as the fruit is worth; 

 in lact until we are able to hold better control over the apple worm (codling 

 moth) it is not desirable to change a few trees to bear the odd year, as they only 

 furnish food for the worms, and assist them to propagate their species for the 

 destruction of the fruit the even year. 



