MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 353 



be made to produce a succession of fruits. The entire fall list of apples, 

 as Wealthy, Haas, Lowell, Snow, can be produced on one tree. The 

 summer list, as Duchess, Red June, Sweet June, Benoni, on another, 

 and Ben Davis, Jonathan, Grimes Golden, Janet, on another. 



A pleasing lot of combinations can be made with different varieties 

 in the different seasons. Also with respect to color, degree of acidity, 

 mildness of flavor. To illustrate. It is entirely possible to give a 

 patron a tree bearing three or more kinds of sweet apples, ranging 

 through different seasons, or a tree bearing four different colored ap- 

 ples, as Jonathan, Grimes, Huntsman, Aunett, or Jersey Black, being 

 red, yellow, bronze, and black, respectively. In plums, quite a con- 

 siderable advantage can be given a planter in length of season. I 

 believe that mixed tops will give the most satisfaction and best results. 



The stock most suitable for the apple is the Virginia crab, but on 

 light prairie soils, Haas is good and to it could be added Duchess, upon 

 which to work slow-growing varieties such as Red June, Early Joe, 

 Wealthy, and more moderate growers, as Benoni and Djer. From the 

 behavior of the Hybernal we would regard it as a good stock for north 

 and would add Walbridge and Iowa Blush, for central Iowa or the 

 southern circuit where such work would be profitable or necessary. 

 The Virginia crab has few objections as a tree to top work. It makes 

 a heavy six-foot tree f inch caliper and upward at three years. Prac- 

 tice budding in the tops six to ten inches from the forks in August, on 

 three-year-old trees, using either dormant buds held over in ice or cold 

 storage, or green buds if weil enough developed. Cut back to these 

 buds the following spring, or the work can be deferred until the follow- 

 ing early June or late May, when the buds can be set and developed 

 into branches at once. — W. M. Bomberger, Iowa, in Orange Judd. 



PLANT RUSSIANS CAUTIOUSLY. 



After ten years of extensive trial it must be said that for the south 

 half of Iowa at least the experiment with Russian fruit has been not 

 only a disappointment, but a serious and costly failure. To recom- 

 mend the extensive planting of these fruits in this district would now 

 seem little less than criminal. 



It is well to be enterprising and keep as near the front of the pro- 

 cession in one's own calling as possible, but in a few ways is it easier 

 to lose money than to be too ready to plant largely of new and untried 

 varieties because some one recommends them. If a new fruit or plant 

 is offered, having originated near by and under substantially the same 

 conditions, it may safely be planted with far less experience than if it 

 H— 23 



