THE ORCHARDS OF MINNESOTA. 93 



than the Duchess and about as productive. Our society has made 

 no mistake in recommending it. The CharlamotT has had a long- 

 trial and is proving so good in tree and fruit that it may be about 

 time to place it on the list for general planting. The Anis family 

 are in general very fine trees, but unprofitable bearers; the Russian 

 Green may be an exception as to bearing. The Anisim is a lardy 

 but extremely heavy bearer of choice fruit; the tree will need good 

 care and rich ground in order to maintain its health when bearing 

 such heavy crops. The Antonovka may not be as bad a blighter an 

 has been supposed; it was looking quite well in a number of places. 

 Longfield was looking very fine everywhere; however, as there seem 

 to be no trees old enough to have stood through our test winters, 

 it may be well to plant it with caution. The Whitney, while looking 

 well as a tree, seems quite variable in fruiting, and in some places 

 is a tardy and unsatisfactory bearer. The Malinda will doubtless 

 be best as a top-worked tree, and the Repka Malenka being a much 

 earlier bearer, an acid apple and rather hardier in tree, may be bet- 

 ter as a long keeper for the home orchard; it is rather too small a 

 fruit for market. Ostrekoff (-t M), Transparent and Avista blight too 

 much to be worthy of further trial. 



Of the newer seedlings. Patten's Greening, Okabeua and Peerless 

 are all very free from blight and inclined to earlj' bearing; the lat- 

 ter does not, however, ripen its wood well and shows strong indica- 

 tions of lack of hardiness. Brett No. 1 seems to deserve more atten- 

 tion than it has thus far received. We do not find the Russian 

 varieties, as a class, any more subject to blight than the American, 

 and, as a rule, they are of far superior hardiness. 



Of the crabs, the Virginia is proving of great value, and on account 

 of its freedom from blight and the better keeping qualitj' of the 

 fruit should largely, if not entirely, supersede the Transcendent 

 The Minnesota is doing extremely well everywhere. The Earlj- 

 Strawberr}-, Martha, Mary, Florence, Sweet Russet, Greenwood and 

 several others appear to be quite safe varieties. 



We cannot but recognise the fact that such a report as this would 

 be of far greater value if made after a series of hard winters had 

 shown up the weak points of the large list of varieties now on trial 

 in our state. We also could wish that we had been able to take more 

 time for our visits and made more thorough work of examination at 

 each place. But, such as it is, we have endeavored to report without, 

 fear or favor, and trust that the report may prove as valuable to the 

 society as the examination was interesting and pleasurable to our- 

 selves. 



Torenia Fournieri is a beautiful annual, being covered until late 

 in the season with one mass of bloom. The flowers are large, and 

 sky blue in color, dotted with three dark blue spots, and a yellow 

 throat. T. Bailoni is a newer variety, bearing yellow flowers, with a 

 brownish red throat. 



Mignpnette Machet is decidedly the best of mignonettes. It is of a 

 strong, bushy habit and bears large spikes of bloom, brick-red in 

 color and deliciously fragrant. 



