188 American Horticultural Society. 



this section we saw for the tirst time extensive fields of corn, melons and 

 toniatoer*: the summer heat and ariditj' of air seeming to mature them 

 about as well as in Central Iowa. 



Our guide and interpreter here was an English-speaking lawyer, who 

 owned large estates in the province. We told him of our use of sweet corn, 

 and of our success in growing the Concord, Worden and other grapes. Re- 

 cently he has assured us by letter that the sweet corn we sent him has pro- 

 duced its first crop, and is regarded as a treasure, and that the grape-cuttings 

 were giving promise of a new era in fruit-growing in the Orchard City. 



The importance of this introduction of the American grapes will be 

 understood in connection with the statement that we did not see a native 

 grape-vine on the Volga, and the West Europe varieties of the vinif^ra type 

 fail to endure the dry air and hard winters of this region, as they also fail 

 with us. While Dame Nature was lavish in giving us a number of species 

 of the grape, she wholly neglected this part of Europe. On the other hand, 

 the apple and the pear are indigenous to a large part of Russia, but nature 

 failed to i)lant them at any point on our continent. From Simbirsk to Sa- 

 mava, fifty miles, the high blufl's and elevated table-lands are continuous on 

 the west bank, and the low pastoral plain continues to stretch beyond the 

 visual range to the eastward. A single estate on the west table-land in- 

 cludes an amount of land about equal to three of our counties. This is the 

 home estate of the Orloff family, who have recently been discussed in the 

 papers as the purchasers of the finest diamonds thrown on the markets of 

 the world. Perhaps no estate of the east can show finer stock, a more com- 

 plete system of rotation of crops, or more varied and complete buildings, 

 equipments, agricultural tools and machinery than the Or loft' estates of East 

 Russia. Outside of the political influence and reported fabulous wealth of 

 the family, the estate is best known in this country as the breeding estab- 

 lishment of the celebrated Orlofi' horses. 



On the Orloff" estates and on the elevated plain to the westward we first 

 begin to notice the high smoke-stacks connected with the beet sugar inter- 

 ests of Russia, and in our inland excursions we pass through thousands of 

 acres of sugar beets. The products of these factories are equal in quality to 

 any of the cane sugars of the world. In addition to supplying the home de- 

 mand and the immense Asiatic trade, the Russian beet sugars manufactured 

 in the great black soil region find their way to this country in large quantity. 

 Below Simbirsk, and in the vicinity of the Orloil' estates, we also begin to 

 notice immense mills for the manufacture of linseed-oil and, so-called, olive 

 or sweet-oil. The latter is expressed from sunflower seeds, and the visitor 

 here passes through hundreds and thousands of acres of what we know as 

 the Russian sunflower. Another extensive manufacturing interest of this 

 region, esjiecially east of the river, is the tanning of the celebrated Russian 

 upper leather, glove leatlier and purse leather, all of which are tanned with 

 the bark of what is known as the desert willow (Salix acuti/olia). 



Opposite Stavopol are the famous Jigulef hills, from which the savage 



