EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 315 



EUSSIAN FRUITS. 



In the northern counties, away from the lakes, the ordinary varieties of 

 apple have not been found sufficiently hardy, and in order to test the 

 value of Russian fruits in these regions, over fifty varieties of apple, 

 besides smaller numbers of pears, cherries, and plums have been planted. 

 The principal orchard is at Grayling, Crawford county, and contains over 

 300 trees, of varieties especially selected for their hardiness. Some of 

 these trees have now been planted three years, and I have yet to learn of 

 any injury from winter killing, while the results in the same sections with 

 ordinary nursery trees have been quite disastrous. 



Most of the varieties have been fruited in Iowa by Prof. J. L. Budd 

 and others, and are said to compare favorably in productiveness, size, and 

 quality with our best varieties. 



Most of the kinds are from eastern Russia, and western Siberia, where 

 they succeed admirably on the dry, sandy plains, and in a climate far more 

 severe than they will need to undergo in Michigan. 



THE STATION ORCHARDS. 



The collection of fruits, both large and small, is quite complete, and it 

 is proposed each year to add such new varieties as are deemed worthy. 



Of the apple we now have about 350 varieties in the station orchard; of 

 these some 50 kinds are in bearing, and the others have been planted from 

 one to seven years, mostly in 1890. 



The pears number 75 varieties, 40 of which have borne fruit. There 

 are sixty sorts of plum, including all the leading European, Japanese, 

 American, and Chickasaw varieties; the cherries number 50 varieties, and 

 the peaches about 60; besides apricots, quinces, etc. 



CARE OF ORCHARDS, 



The orchards are for the most part kept in cultivation, those of bearing 

 age being without crops. The cost of this cultivation is very slight, as we 

 go over the ground once in ten days or two weeks, from May 1, to August 

 15, with an Acme harrow or Pearce orchard cultivator; the soil is thus 

 stirred to a depth of two or three inches, and acts as a mulch to conserve 

 the moisture, while the frequent cultivation gives the weeds no chance to 

 start. 



As an experiment, some ten rows in the old apple orchard have been 

 kept in sod for two years, and the effect has been very marked, both in 

 the growth of the trees and the appearance of the foliage. It is yet too 

 early to see what effect it will have on the number and size of the fruits. 



FERTILIZERS FOR ORCHARDS. 



As a fertilizer we have made use of unleached wood ashes. On most 

 soils no other fertilizer need be used for a number of years, but on light 

 or exhausted soils the application of perhaps twenty loads of decomposed 

 stable manure, or, if this can not be obtained, of fifty pounds nitrate of soda 

 and two hundred pounds of fine ground bone per acre, which, with one 

 hundred bushels of ashes, will make a complete fertilizer. In case the 



