298 ANKUAL REPORT 



STILL ON THE VOLGA — FRUIT AROUND SIMBIRSK. 



Simbirsk, Russia, Sept. 3. 



We have spent three days in examining the fruits in the many 

 orchards in and near to the famous fruit city of Simbirsk. It may 

 be more properly named "The Orchard City" than any town we 

 know of in Europe or America. Literally every available spot in 

 and around the city is planted to apple, pear, cherry aiid plum 

 trees, all of which this year have produced great crops of really 

 choice fruit. But not a single variety can be found that belongs 

 to the races of fruit found even in north Germany. The climate is 

 very trying both summer and winter. The city is located in the 

 dry steppe region, 500 miles east and a few miles south of Moscow. 



The air is very dry, and during the day excessively hot. On ac- 

 count of the rapid radiation, the nights, however, are decidedly 

 cool, yet not too cool to prevent the ripening of tomatoes and first- 

 class melons. There has been no rain here for the past seven 

 weeks, and everything would long ago have been parched were 

 it not that the black drift soil will stand long-continued drouth. 

 The winters are colder than in any part of Minnesota, that is, the 

 extreme winters which come, as with us, at intervals of from six to 

 eight years. In 1877, for instance, the temperature the last of De- 

 cember reached 50^ Fahrenheit, with very little snow, while last 

 winter was very moderate with very heavy snows. 



Thousands of acres of orchard here are planted, with a very few 

 commercial varieties of the apple, which do not differ materially 

 from those grown in the province of Kazan. The trees are small 

 in size and bushy in habit of growth, but loaded with very showy 

 and excellent fruit. Could our friends at home drop in our hotel 

 room at this moment they would see every stand and table loaded 

 with very fine specimens of apples, pears and plums. Of the cher- 

 ries we took leave at Kazan, yet a few specimens of the late varie- 

 ties of the indigenous race are yet found in the thicket-like cherry 

 orchards. I say " thicket," as the trees are merely large bushes, 

 and they are grown so very closely that their branches must be 

 pushed aside to get through them. The plums are also dwarf in 

 form, and grown very closely together. There are many hundred 

 bushels of red and blue plums now on the trees, and the early sorts 

 have been marketed. The fruit is much like that of the German 

 prune in firmness of texture, but the red varieties are much sweeter. 

 The blue sorts are not yet ripe, and we cannot judge their quality^ 

 but we are told they sell best in the market. We find in the bor- 



