STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 93 



His select list of winter apples for profit reads as follows: Antonovka, 

 Ara1)ka, Bal)usfhin(>, Keinette Ruch ile Veroiiesh. Koslulesveiiskoe, 

 Red Serinka, Zeloiika. Of pears, Besseiiiianka, and the varieties de- 

 rived from the indigenous Berganiots take the lead. Of cherries, 

 only the varieties of what is known as the Vladimir race are grown 

 for profit. Of plums, only the red. blue, and black of the indigenous 

 race. All the varieties and species of the conifers of the north 

 plain disa])pear, and the few seen are Cembra pine, from the Amur, 

 Finns Rnfensis, and two or three spruces and firs from West Siberia. 



Tn this regicui, it is well to say, that different provinces, and even 

 different parts of the same province, grow varieties of apple and pear 

 which have long been local. For instance, we found on the old Bog- 

 danoff estates four hundred trees of a very fine winter apple, looking 

 very much like our Domine. but larger and handsomer. We were 

 told that it had been grown by the family for over four hundred 

 years, yet we saw it in no other part of Russia. So, also, at this 

 place we found an excellent hardy pear of the Grucha race (pears 

 are here divided into two classes: (1 ) Grucha, or pear-shaped, and 

 (2) Bergamotte, or rouiul -shaped), which had long been grown by 

 the Brogdanoffs, which we failed to hear of except at Tula, where it 

 had been carried by a nobleman of the province. The lack of inter- 

 change, and the universal habit of seed planting among the peas- 

 ants, has multiplied varieties in peasant sections to an extent difficult 

 for us to comprehend, yet in these peasant collections the preserva- 

 tion of races is very remarkable: one section, for instance, has fixed 

 a race of green apples with l)luslied cheek; another section a race of 

 high-colored striped apples, like our Duchess, etc. 



The soil here is a rich, deep, black drift, much like that of Cen- 

 tral Illinois. The summers are long enough, and with sufficient 

 heat for the ripening of dent corn, the tomato, and the melon, and 

 the winters often register 40° below zero without snow. An advan- 

 tage in apple and pear growing here, as in all parts of Russia, is the 

 universal use of the wild apple and pear stocks, by budding or graft- 

 ing above the ground. 



As to quality of fruits at this interior point, we saw no large 

 apples coarser or poorer than Ben Davis and Duchess, and no small 

 a])ples as low in quality as (Jil])iu and Lunsingl>urg. The best a])])les 

 rank in quality, size, and nppearaiice with the Fameuse, Baldwin, 

 Dominie, and Willow, but we found no winter sorts to equal our 

 Jonathan and Grimes' Golden. 



The best eating ))ear grown in t|uaiitity was Bessemianka. which 

 is smaller but perhaps nearly equal in quality to Flemish Heauty. 



The cherries of the Vladimir race are better than our Morellos 

 for dessert use, some of them equalling the Ostheim. The ])lums are, 

 in texture, flavor, and firmness of flesh, much like our Damson. The 

 Moldavka, here largely grown, is larger and coarser in texture than 

 the Lombard. 



