RUSSIAN AND OTHER FRUITS. 321 



of soil, climate, etc, he might hope to obtain varieties adapted to the conditions 

 occurring in Iowa and other portions of the northwest. 



In pursuance of this purpose, the professor, in company with Mr. Charles 

 Gibb, of Abbotsford, Quebec, made a lengthened visit to central and eastern 

 Europe, extending their trip as far as the valley of the upper Volga, where, 

 in most essential particulars, the climate is nearly akin to that of the valleys 

 of the upper Mississippi and Missouri. As the result of such visit and exam- 

 inations, beesides other fruits, shrubbery, forest, and ornamental trees, no 

 less than nineteen importati<^n8 of apples were made between May, 1879, and 

 January, 1885, from various localities in Russia, Portland, Germany, and 

 Austria. 



These, together with those secured from the importations of others, have 

 been extensively propagated at the college, and the product widely dissemi- 

 nated, at a nominal charge, for trial throughout the northwest, so far as 

 their success seemed probable, but under an arrangement providing for care- 

 ful reports of results. 



Complaint is made by President C. G. Patten, of the Iowa State Horti- 

 cultural Society, and by others as well, that some of the Russian apples are 

 slow growers — a peculiarity which may with some of them prove to be consti- 

 tutional, having, as they had, their origin at the extreme north, where, 

 doubtless owing to the shortness of the growing season, together with the 

 unusually arid climate, the tree under continued propagation from seed 

 assumed a permanently dwarfish condition, not likely to become changed by 

 the transmission of the variety to a different climate — a fact likely to prove 

 equally true so far as hardiness also is concerned ; although it must be con- 

 ceded that in this particular there may be, at least, apparent exceptions, since 

 at Des Moines, on the grounds of Hon. C. L. Watrous, were found a con- 

 siderable numb3r of what are considered to be among the hardiest and most 

 desirable of the Russian apples, trees of which, four or five years planted, 

 when cut through, were found to be more or less black-hearted, and many 

 of them quite past the possibility of successful growth and permanent useful- 

 ness. Similar cases of obvious winter killing in the cases of older bearing 

 trees of Russian apples were also seen upon the grounds of A. W. Sias, of 

 Rochester, Minn., as well as in another extensive orchard in that vicinity, 

 and also upon the grounds of President Patten. 



A change of latitude, accompanied, as it must necessarily be, by a change 

 of climate, and especially in going southward, by lengthening of the growing 

 season, must necessarily change the season of ripening, at least in the case of 

 a winter fruit. This is a well known result of such migration of our native 

 fruits, which must prove equally true of these importations, although the 

 extent of such variation can only be surmised in advance of actual trial. 



There is also in America, and doubtless likewise in Europe, an unmistak- 

 able modification of the character of fruits, doubtless due to modified 

 climate, when transferred inland, even without change of latitude; but just 

 how much of such change may be due to greater aridity, higher or lower 

 average temperature, more violent extremes, deficient moisture in the soil, or 

 to variations of soil, is a problem too complex for satisfactory solution under 

 these varying circumstances; while a change in the season of maturity and 

 possibly the variation of the quality of fruit may be anticipated, and the 

 probable direction of such variation foreseen, its amount, whether in season 

 or quality, can only ba determined by actual trial. 



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