STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 127 



adopted a small list for general cultivation in their district, but 

 at their last meeting they rescinded that action as premature. 

 Whereupon they appointed a committee, with Prof. Budd as 

 chairman, to make a selection for trial only. This committee se- 

 lected eighteen varieties, nearly all of which are summer and fall 

 apples, and this out of some 400 varieties. The Wisconsin State 

 Horticultural Society, at their last meeting, described nine 

 Russian varieties, with no other recommendation than such de- 

 scription would carry; one of these nine is described as being 

 "tender North, unless top-worked on some hardy stock." 



Now while there are a limited number of these Russians that 

 really possess valuable traits, such as superior hardiness, pro- 

 ductiveness, fine size and handsome appearance of fruit, of fair 

 and even good quality, the great majority of them, however, pos- 

 sess serious faults, among which unproductiveness, tenderness, 

 inferior quality and predisposition to blight may be mentioned, 

 while nearlv all of them mature their fruit in summer and fall; 

 no satisfactory late keepers having as yet been found among 

 them that could compare favorably with our own native winter 

 sorts. 



The growing of seedlings is looked upon by some as our only 

 hope; well, while commendable progress has been made in this 

 direction, the final result is yet too remote to be of immediate 

 practical use. It should not be overlooked that nearly all of our 

 approved native sorts were unnamed seedlings once, and that 

 we shall be obliged, for many years to come, to place our main 

 dependency for winter and spring apples entirely upon our native 

 assortment of keepers ; and as these have all proven more or less 

 defective in endurance of the vicissitudes of our climatic con- 

 ditions when grow r n by root-grafting or budding, the only feasible 

 way left us, if we would grow such trees possessing a hardy con- 

 stitution, is to grow these by top-working upon congenial "iron- 

 clad" stocks. 



Of Siberians that have given the best results as stocks, I 

 would name Whitney, Milton, Virginia, Shields and Orion; and 

 among Russians the Duchess, Charlamoff, Hibernal, Enormous 

 and Green Streaked will be amply sufficient and entirely satis- 

 factory for all practical purposes. There is not a variety — no 

 matter how vigorous a grower, — but what will produce a perfect 

 union with some of these "iron-clads," and I am fully convinced 

 that if our northern nurserymen would take hold of this matter 

 in good earnest the result would, in a very few years, be a most 

 gratifying one. By this process of double working — if proper 

 attention be paid to the affinity of the different varieties for one 

 another — we can have good, healthy, hardy and profitable trees 

 of nearly all of our old favorites — trees, that will endure our 

 severest test winters, remaining vigorous and productive for a 

 much longer period than if propagated by any other known 



