STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 295 



For ages it has been the barter point where oriental products are 

 exchanged for those of the west. Singularly enough this is not 

 done by proxy. In person we have here the peasant, and the per- 

 sons high in power o^ every oriental race and tribe. The collection 

 of products and people will live with me as a dreamland picture 

 while memory lasts. 



MORE ABOUT THE FRUITS OF THE VOLGA REGION. 



To return to the Volga fruits I will say that the steamers run 

 from Nishny to Astrachan, a distance by river of 1,400 miles, and 

 of course the fruits of even Astrachan are found at Nishny, but 

 the number of days required by the boats to reach the head waters 

 make it less desirable to ship the summer fruits so far, yet where 

 we get sight of the Astrachan fruits they are of the Chinese and 

 Russian type. The steppe country really reaches the Caucasus 

 range on the south, and the northers of winter are low in tempera- 

 ture when they reach the Caspian, ajid dry as those of our north- 

 west winds of Iowa. Hence the fruits in all the windings of the 

 Volga may be counted better able t3 bear the summer heats and 

 the winter blizzards of Iowa than those of south Europe. 



We stopped a few minutes ago at a village on the side of the 

 loess bluff of the Volga for an hour. Of course we had a peep at 

 the fruits and trees. We found the huckster women peddling an 

 apple we met at Nishny, which looks like our Fameuse. If mixed 

 with well colored specimens of the latter grown in Iowa, it will 

 require an expert to pick it out. But in reality the flesh is yellow- 

 ish white, and very nearly sweet. It is juicy and decidedly plea- 

 sant for a summer-eating apple. We are told it is extensively used 

 in Russia for baking and boiling. Here its names are local. I 

 will try to identify it later, if known in the Russian fruit books. 

 We have a place for such an apple. The blackberries, huckleber- 

 ries and cranberries we see here are wholly unl'ke those of the 

 United States. I should also state that the plums and cherr}' trees 

 are not grown in tree form any more than are the gooseberries and 

 currant. They are really large hushes with several stems from the 

 roots. The pruning is done by cutting out the older stems, as the 

 most and the best fruit is found on the younger offshoots. Really 

 these northern cherries and plums are large shrubs rather than 

 trees^ but very desirable in fruit. 



