STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 321 



In Northern Iowa it will keep until spring if picked early. In 

 Central and Southern Iowa it will keep as well as Grimes, but may 

 require earlier picking. As the trees have a tendency to early ma- 

 turity, the fruit of all Russian winter apples must be picked earlier 

 than we pick even the Jonathan. But if we picked when quite 

 tender, for eating, the Antonooka will keep for months if properly 

 stored. 



The scions can be obtained in any quantity of C. H. Wagner, 

 Riga, Russia. 



Ames, Jan. 11, 1883. 



My Dear Sir : (1). Russia is very great country. In the 

 south it approaches our Florida; in the north it reaches the polar 

 ocean. The coast on the west, for 300 miles in, is swampy or 

 sandy land, more or less timbered. From Riga to St. Petersburg, 

 in the coast region, are grown only summer apples, and the varie- 

 ties grown here are utterly unknown 1,000, or even 500, miles 

 east. The coast region has cool, short summers, while the far in- 

 terior grows corn, melons, and tomatoes. At Simbirsk, on the 

 Volga, the summer mean is that of Iowa City, while its winter 

 mean is that of Northern Minnesota, with far less snow. Here are 

 found the Minnesota apples and fruits. Even the varieties from 

 this point may hliglit under some circumstances, as does the Duch- 

 ess. But the coast varieties will blight much ivorse^ as, like the 

 Siberians, they are indigenous \o relatively cool, moist climate. 



(2). The Siberian crab is hardly known in Russia. We saw 

 Pirus Baccata and Pirus Prunifolia of large size at Warsaw, St. 

 Petersburg, and Moscow, but only in the Botanical gardens. At 

 Kazan, Simbirsk, Volsk, etc., on the Upper Volga, we saw a few 

 young trees in the gardens of proprietors. It was always pointed 

 out to us as a new thing, for ornament only, under the name of 

 " Chinese Apple." We saw only one variet}' in a two mouths'^ 

 ramble in the interior, and that was just like what we call the 

 " Brush Crab," The only blight I saw in Russia was on some 

 young crabs in a yard at Veronesh, 



(3). We saw no true crab in peasant orchards. In some places 

 they grow quite largely— small-sized apples, like the Anis, Black- 

 wood, and Good Peasant, but they are real apples with leaves- 

 not like the Duchess — but resembling the wild apples found in 

 the timber along the streams all over Central Russia. Their wild 

 apple makes a tall forest tree on the black soils, as does their wild 

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