THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 27. FEBRUARY, 1899. No. 2. 



REPORT OF THE RUSSIAN APPLE NOMENCLATURE 



COMMISSION. 



(Meeting held at La Crosse, Wis., Aug. 30-31, 1898. Report made at 

 Annual Meeting Dec. 8, 1898.) 



President, Clarence Wedge, Albert Lea, Myinesota. 

 Secretary, N. E. Hansen, Brookings, South Dakota. 



It is well known to fruit men that the nomenclature of Russian 

 apples imported into the Northwest is much mixed. There are 

 various reasons for this confusion. The scions as orig-inally im- 

 ported were in many cases mixed, and in Russia itself the nomen- 

 clature has not yet been fully worked out for all parts of the fruit- 

 growing sections. To this must be added errors in handling such 

 an immense list of varieties in this country. Also the fact that 

 among the great number of Russian apples are found well-defined 

 groups or families. By this is meant that some varieties so closely 

 resemble each other as to be nearly or quite identical. Slight 

 differences may be apparent in season, quality, size and appearance 

 of fruit, and in habit and other characteristics of tree, but for all 

 practical purposes the3^ are too nearly the same to warrant more 

 than one representative of the group being put into general culti- 

 vation. To cut down the list would greatly simplify matters pom- 

 ological, and the need of it has been long felt. 



In order to make a beginning in this work the State Horticultural 

 Societies of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and South Dakota 

 ^appointed a Commission, which met in the annex of Hotel Esper- 

 sen, La Crosse, Wis., A.ugust 30 and 31, 1898. Wisconsin was repre- 

 sented by A. G. Tuttle, of Baraboo, Prof. E. S. Goff, of the State 

 University at Madison, and by A. J. Philips, Secretary of the State 

 Horticultural Society, West Salem. Iowa was represented by J. B. 

 Mitchell, of Cresco, C. G. Patten, of Charles City, and J. Sexton, of 

 Ames. Prof. J. L. Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural College, the 

 highest authority on Russian fruits, was represented by Mr. J. 

 Sexton, who has been his chief assistant for the past twenty-three 

 years. Minnesota was represented by J. S. Harris, of La Creecent, 

 Prof. S. B. Green, of the University of Minnesota, and Clarence 

 Wedge, of Albert Lea. South Dakota was represented by Prof. N. 

 E. Hansen, of the State Agricultural College, at Brookings. 



