STATE HORTCIULTURAL SOCIETY. 91 



moimtain ranges. Hence Ave find l)l(>cks of Possart's Nalivia. Ban- 

 man's Heinette, Batvillen, Boiken, Winter Citron, Duchess, Pome de 

 Neige, Drap de Or, and many of the fine summer and autumn 

 apples of Southern Russia. 



Systematic selection would give us very many apples nearly or 

 quite as hardy as the Duchess from the old Chiswick gardens near 

 London, as we saw on these grounds many varieties of the apples of 

 the Volga loaded with fruit, said to have been grown from the origi- 

 nal scions received hy Andrew Knight from Simbirsk on the Volga. 

 Accidently, from this importation, the Duchess came to Canada, and 

 has become the king iron clad of the great Northwest. Unfortu- 

 nately our importations have been selected by parties in the mildest 

 portions of the Eastern States. So far as T know no horticultural 

 expert of the prairie States has studied the great collections of even 

 the north plain with a view to selecting varieties of any of our 

 fruits suited to regions with dry hot sujnmers and very cold winters. 

 Our varieties have come to us as a thing of chance rather than sys- 

 tematic selection. 



As we enter upon the east plain of Europe the horticulturist 

 will not fail to notice a sudden change in soil, trees, shrubs and 

 plants, becoming more decided and marked with each degree as we 

 go northward and eastward. With a good map of Europe before us 

 we can get something of an idea of the extent of this plain, and of 

 the reasons for its inter-continental climate. 



The Carpathian and Caucasus ranges on the south cutoff mainly 

 the soft winds from the Mediterannean and the Gulf Stream. North 

 of these mountains we notice no elevation marked on the great tract 

 constituting fully three-fourths of all Europe, exce])ting the Valdai 

 hills northwest of Moscow, and this liluffy section no more deserves 

 the name of hills than some of the bluffs of our Iowa rivers. The 

 great plain includes Northern Austria and all of Russia in Europe. 

 Except on the Tundras of the far north, and the lialf sandy tract 

 extending inland from one to three hundred miles east of the Baltic, 

 we find no timber on this the greatest of prairies, except along the 

 streams, and the many great planted forests dotting the steppes in 

 which the Russian government takes just pride. 



The soil is a varied and modified drift and lacustrive deposit, 

 resting on limestone corresponding to that of the west, not except- 

 ing the, shingling of the several deposits toward the northeast. Ihe 

 change of climate, as to rainfall and aridity of air on the east plain, 

 is noted as we pass eastward toward the Altai range of mountains 

 in Asia, while with us the dry region is reached in passing westward 

 toward the Rocky Mountains. As we enter u})on this ])lain from the 

 southwest — say at Proskau, in North Silesia, where, at the King's 

 Pomological Institute, is found one of the largest collections of 

 fruits, trees and shrubs of inter-continental Eur(4)e. we notice a 

 sudden dropping out of everything we call tender at the west. 



