8 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



and in every case I found the bark ruptured around the stem and 

 the inner wood deadened. Those yet alive show more or less rup- 

 ture of bark in their stems. Those hardy Russians, like the Ogden- 

 burg, Tetofsky, Yellow Transparent and the newer sorts of them, 

 as AVell as the AVhitney and other crabs, have shown no signs of 

 bark bursting. These all ripen their wood growth early in the sea- 

 son and do not readily take on a late second growth, but remain 

 dormant, hence are fully matured with the wood ripened off when 

 winter cOmes. It will be remembered that ever since 1882 we have 

 had a great deal of wet weather during the growing season, except 

 the past summer; the trees of our common sorts, therefore, were 

 kept growing late in the season and were consequently prevented 

 from ripening off their growth properly, hence were unprepared to 

 resist the intense cold of those winters. 



But the cjuestion asked is not answered yet. Well, the Rus- 

 sians, enduring our climate so well, must be the trees to plant. Hold 

 on, my friends, not quite so fast, please. It is true, we want some 

 of those Russians; in fact, we cannot do without some of them; we 

 Avant the Yellow Transparent and Ave want the Ogdenburg and Ave 

 Avant a few others of the best tested fall apples of that class and Ave 

 Avant the Wealthy, and will have it in every orchard; although not 

 a Russian^ it is claimed by its introducer to have been produced from 

 a Crab seed; however that may be, it has good blood in it and Avill 

 do to tie too anywhere in Northern Illinois. But Avhat is the mat- 

 ter Avith those Russians? If they are so hardy, they must certainly 

 be the kinds to plant. Let us look this matter up. 



There have been over four hundred different varieties of apples 

 imported from Northern Europe since 1870— good, bad and indiffer- 

 ent. A good share of these have been on trial in different localities 

 of the northwest for sixteen years — a sufficient length of time 

 surely, to show their colors. On this point Prof. I3udd, of the 

 Iowa State College, on page 62 of the '' College Bulletin," issued in 

 January, 1886, says: ''Those who have not followed closely the 

 progress of our experiments with the fruits of the east plain, Avill 

 express wonder that we should place on trial such a great number of 

 varieties from the Baltic Provinces, Avhich Ave uoav say are relatively 

 worthless." With a view to explaining this seeming anomaly, I ap- 

 pend a few historical notes: "In the spring of 1878, and 1879, Ave 

 top-worked about one thousand young trees of Gros Pomier in orch- 

 ard, and a few Duchess, with the hardiest knoAA^n varieties of the ap- 

 ple of this country, and with about one hundred varieties of Rus- 

 sian apples, imported by the Department of Agriculture, in 1870, 

 from St. Petersburg, and by the College in the spring of 1879, as 

 were recommended by Dr. Regel, of St. Petersburg. Some time 

 later we received letters from Dr. Regel, and from Dr. Arnold, of 

 Moskow, stating that the best varieties of the apple, pear, cherry 

 and plum were grown on the richer soils, and in the hotter and drier 



