STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 293 



ON THE VOLGA. 



I am now afloat on the Volga for a trip to Kazan, about 600 

 miles east of Moscow. Nishny is nearly 300 miles east of Moscow, 

 and is a central fuit market, as it is indeed of about every known 

 commercial product. Boat load after boat load of applies lie on 

 the wharfs subject to the inspection of purchasers. Mr. Stockwell 

 kindly went Avith us to interview the growers of these fruits, who 

 always seem to accompany their assignments. To ascertain the 

 real commercial varieties of the North Volga was our main object. 

 In fruit growing the Russian is a creature of habit and a close 

 follower of the habits of his forefathers. This tendency is bad 

 enough in south Europe, but it is intensified here to a degree 

 often painful to the versatile American. For instance in the im- 

 mense province of Vladimir, east of Moscow, the whole province 

 is given to growing the cherry. Hundreds of proprietors have 

 orchards of ten thousand trees (or rather bushes), and the products 

 are shipped to every part of the empire. 



PLUMS AND CHERRIES AT 50° BELOW ZERO. 



In the cherry season, Vladimir cherries are plenty and cheap in 

 every Russian city reached by railroads or water. We are told 

 that whole trains are loaded with them for Siberia and the far 

 northeastern cities of the plains. South of Vladimir, but still 

 near to the 50th parallel where the thermometer reaches at times 

 50*^ below zero Fahrenheit, is grown the plum in quantities abso- 

 lutelj' immense. These plums vary in season and color, but they 

 are all of one race, which seems indigenous to northern Asia. 

 Many of the varieties we met at Nishny are equal to the best 

 German prunes, which they resemble in shape and texture of 

 flesh. The color is usually red, and the suture at one side is pecu- 

 liar to the race. 



SOME OF THE APPLES HE WAS LOOKING FOR. 



As we go south (or rather east on the Volga) we reach the apple 

 growing districts, not because the soil or climate are better than 

 in Vladimir, but because the people happened to drift in the early 

 ages in this direction. One of the large orchardists who brings 

 fruit here by the barge load, grows only four varieties specially 

 suited for the Nishny market during August and the first week of 

 September. These varieties are (1) Borovitsky, a large oblong 

 variety with crimson stripes. In quality and appearance it is 



