STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 343 



I have become so completch- disgusted with these pomological 

 Jack O'Lanterns, that in discussing them, I ma}' sa}'' some things 

 more strongly than I ought to ; but we have been chasing these 

 dehisions here, in the best fruit-growing section of the State, for a 

 good many 3'ears, — and with what result? What have we gained, 

 or what need we expect from them? It is about time for us to find 

 out what they are ; what we have got from them, and what we may 

 not expect from them. 



Several years ago the Department of Agriculture imported scions 

 of a large number of varieties of Russian apples with the view to 

 secure especially hardy varieties for propagation uear the noi'thern 

 borders. The result, as we all know, is a failure. There has not 

 j'et been obtained a single variety of a goodly winter fruit, from 

 something like a hundred varieties, which have received the care 

 and attention, time and mone}', of our pomological experimenters 

 from the east to the west. 



There have been a few, two or three varieties of extremely early 

 fruit, which proved valuable and really worth}' of attention in 

 certain localities. But we all know about early fruits. We have 

 no room for any more varieties here. We have no market for any 

 considerable amount of earl}' fruit ; we do not want to raise a large 

 amount for home use because we have enough already. We have 

 no need of special efforts in that direction. 



Now what is the reason of this ? May we not discuss the whole 

 subject of Russian fruit right here ? It is an established fact that 

 we need not look for late keeping varieties of apples from localities of 

 extremely low temperatures and short growing seasons, for the 

 reason that the late keeping apple requires a long season to grow. 

 The wood corresponds in a measure with the fruit it bears, and in 

 the late keeping varieties requires a full and complete season of 

 growth ; while in the Russian varieties both the fruit and the wood 

 ripen early, as they necessarily must in the short seasons of their 

 native localities. The Russian apples, when grown in our climate, 

 retain their habits of early ripening, consequently the two conditions 

 of an extremely hardy, thoroughly "iron clad" variety and a late 

 keeper are not found in juxtaposition, and we need not chase these 

 shadows in that direction any longer. The experimenters who have 

 been at work upon these numerous varieties have come to the con- 

 clusion that there is nothing valuable among them for late keeping ; 



