94 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Passing still eastward three hundred miles to the provinces of 

 Saratov and Simbirsk, on the Avest bank of the Volga, we reach a 

 climate with less annual rainfall, less snow, and still hotter and drier 

 summer air on account of the prevalent southeast winds passing 

 over the deserts of Arabia, Persia, and of Southeastern Russia. 



While the temperature of winter is not much if any lower than 

 at Voronesh, numy varieties grown in the latter province are dropped 

 from the profitable lists on account of their foliage proving defec- 

 tive when exposed to the desert winds. Here the many varieties of 

 the Anis and Borovinca are king. In the largest commercial orch- 

 ards — we visited one near Saratov containing over 12,000 bearing 

 trees, — the Red and Blue Anis are grown in surpassing quantity for 

 export to Moscow and to the far northeast, on the confines of Sibe- 

 ria. They are in size, shape, color and quality, much like our 

 Winesap, though when grown in the dry air and soil of this region, 

 they have far more color and bloom than we ever see on the Wine- 

 sap. Simbirsk seems the natal home of the Borovinca race of which 

 our Duchess is a fair representative. We saw very many varieties of 

 the race which in bud, leaf, color of twig, habit of growth, and even 

 the color, stripes and bloom of the fruit closely resembled our 

 Duchess. Yet some of the varieties are sweet, some sub-acid, and 

 some are summer, autumn and winter sorts. It is known that the 

 Duchess came from the Volga region, and I have no doubt that its 

 parents at least were from Simbirsk. Less extensively some varieties 

 of the Arabka and Steklianka are grown, and the Antonovka is 

 being introduced in young orchards from the west. As to the pear, 

 the common and apparently indigenous Bergamots and Gruchas are 

 grown to a greater extent than the consumption demands for this 

 low grade of cooking pears. Standing on the tower of the cathe- 

 dral in Simbirsk one can see many square miles of the bluffs and the 

 plain back of it covered with apple and pear trees. While the apple is 

 mainly grafted, and the best sorts only grown in quantity, the pear 

 seems mainly grown from seed. While very fair pears for eating, 

 and the best for culinary use, are found in proprietor orchards, the 

 peasant planting covering the country is mainly of low grade seed- 

 lings. An intelligent lawyer of this ancient city, much interested 

 in horticulture, is trying to secure suitable machinery for grinding 

 and pressing the immense surplus of common pears in this region, 

 and utilizing the juice for perry making. If he succeeds in this we 

 may be able to procure pear seeds for stocks, and with a view to 

 introducing a race of pears able to endure a low temperature and our 

 hot dry summer air, without showing blight. 



We have a few seedlings of this Volga Bergamot from seeds 

 taken out by hand when on the ground, which we shall watch with 

 some interest. It must be remembered that Simbirsk is on the 54th 

 parallel of north latitude, and fully 1,200 miles inland from the 

 Baltic, on the very verge of the desert region, where no crop can be 



