408 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



A hardy "northman" from the "steppes of Russia?" A delicions 

 little Calville or Reinette from the simny plains of " LaBelle France?" 

 or some new variety to the "manor born?" In reply to the first 

 question, I will say, that, in my opinion, we shall never find our 

 "coming apple" here. I have tested a number of Russians and only 

 found the Red Astrachan entirely satisfactory. North of the forty- 

 second parallel the Duchess is uniformly successful, but south of that 

 line it is often small and scabby, and always poor in quality. Tetof- 

 sky is a handsome, hardy tree, and quite productive, but very poor in 

 quality, and must be used or sold within two days after it is ripe. 

 Alexander is a large, handsome fruit, but the tree dies with blight 

 after bearing two or three crops. I have top-grafted numerous other 

 varieties, but they have generally blighted and died before leaving a 

 specimen. I believe that the instigations and experiments of Prof. 

 Budd will result in great good to the country at large and particu- 

 larly to Northern Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota; but I do not 

 think that any of the Russian apples will ever be of any value in 

 this latitude as winter varieties. 



Coming to native seedlings, we find nothing that is entirely sat- 

 isfactory. Wealthy is all that can be desired as a tree, and the fruit 

 large, high colored and good, bat in this latitude a September apple, 

 which makes it of little value as a market variety. Salome is hardy 

 and productive, fruit of fair quality and keeps well, but too small 

 and light colored for a market apple in Central Illinois. Farther 

 north I think it will prove valuable. Wolf River is a Wisconsin 

 seedling of considerable promise; tree hardy, fruit large, handsome 

 and said to keep well, but I fear its Russian blood will cause it to 

 blight after bearing a few crops. Wythe is hardy in this section, 

 but farther north is said to have been injured by the late cold win- 

 ters. The fruit is of good size and quality, and keeps remarkably 

 well, but as the trees grow old it becomes small and scabs and cracks 

 like its parent, ths Janet. Shackleford closely resembles the Ben Da- 

 vis in general appearance but is said to be better in quality. It is 

 possible that it is one of our coming apples. Southern Illinois has a 

 number of promising new varieties, but, as yet, we know little of 

 their merits. 



We have now hurriedly looked over the ground without any sat- 

 isfactory results, and the question is as far from a solution as ever. 

 What then shall we plant? I have been planting apple trees for 

 thirty years, and have probably tested as many varieties as any man 

 in the State, and, with my present experience, if I were to plant a 

 commercial orchard of one thousand trees I should plant about as 

 follows: Seven hundred and fifty Ben Davis, fifty Willow Twig, 

 fifty Red Canada, twenty-five Wythe, twenty-five Jonathan, twenty- 

 five Maiden's Blush, twenty-five Wealthy, fifty Red Astrachan. Un- 

 der favorable conditions these varieties may be considered hardy, and 

 if planted on good soil and properly cultivated and fertilized, an or- 



