APPLES. 109 



in this country. While the trees and fruits of interior Russia can 

 endure intense summer heat and a desert air, they can also endure 

 intense winter cold, on account of their perfect ripening of wood in 

 autumn. But experience shows that they can live and thrive with- 

 out the cold of winter. The inain problem presented is the wise dis- 

 tribution of the fruits from the widely separated provinces of east 

 Europe. Our only g-uide has been actual trial, and this is now giv- 

 ing- us much information from all parts of the country, from Winni- 

 peg to the Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



BEHAVIOR. 



As the quality and season of the Russian apples have been in 

 dispute, it inay be well to include a brief statement under this gen- 

 eral head of "Behavior." 



As to qualitj^, it can be said in a general way that in eastern Europe 

 the distinction between varieties exclusively used for cooking and 

 dessert is run closer than with us. Quite a large number of large, 

 smooth and handsome varieties of the Hibernal, Aport and other 

 families contain a very large per cent, of pectin and grape sugar, 

 but they are off on flavor for dessert use. That they excel any west 

 European or American variety for pies, sauce or jellies is now con- 

 ceded in the sections where they were planted ten years ago. 



On the other hand, every variety of summer, fall, and winter 

 apples listed by Dr. Regel, Dr. Shroder or Dr. Arnold, for dessert 

 use is fully up to the Early Harvest, Fall Orange, and Baldwin in 

 quality, and in many cases they reach the standard given to Red 

 June, Benoni and Jonathan. Of course, this is not in accordance 

 with public opinion outside of the neighborhoods where they have 

 been fruited in large numbers for several years. 



As to season it may be stated in a general way that every variety 

 from the coast provinces or any part of west Russia will mature in 

 our climate in the summer or autumn; but among the varieties 

 imported by the Iowa Agricultural College from the interior pro- 

 vinces where dent corn ripens, we find a number that will keep as 

 well in southern Iowa as Jonathan, Grimes' Golden, Ben Davis and 

 Willow. At the recent meeting in the northern half of Iowa, a num- 

 ber of varieties were shown which were so late in season that the past 

 year they failed to color up properly prior to apple picking time. 

 Even varieties like Rosy Repka, Good Peasan't, Amsein (Anisim), 

 and Varonesh Rosy, which color up beautifully and keep as well as 

 Jonathan in southern Iowa, do not color up perfectly at their 

 northern limit of growth, and they can be kept until May. 



Prepotency. — This also can properly be included under the head 

 of behavior. The fact that Russian varieties run into near family 

 variations, like our native plums, indicates purity of breeding; in 

 other words, that they are not mongrels, like "nearly all our so-called 

 American varieties. 



In our work of crossing we have indicated this purity of breeding 

 in a way that promises to be very useful. Our seedlings, for instance, 

 of Hibernal crossed with pollen of Grimes' Golden and Osceola are 

 unifortn in height, foliage, and expression. They all show the Hiber- 

 nal traits, including the habit of earl}' and perfect ripening of their 



