86 ANNUAL JKEPORT 



this region famous, and l)y its excellence will add ou^^ more 

 triumph to the many which have already been achieved here in 

 the realm of agriculture." 



* DISCUSSION. 



Mr. O. F. Brand, who was a member of the committee with 

 Mr. Keffer, was called upon to report as to these Russian va- 

 rieties, and said : 



In conversation Mr. Tuttle admitted that blight was the great- 

 est enemy of the Russian varieties. We could not tell from the 

 looks of the fruit how much they blighted, but from my own ex- 

 perience I find that those varieties that don't kill by blight don't 

 bear very jnuch. 



Mr. Smith. You had a great many Russian varieties eight or 

 ten years ago; what has been your experience with those? 



Mr. Brand. I had sixty-five varieties of the first that were 

 sent out by the department, which I propagated, and I got most 

 of them large enough to bear. Where the Wealthy bore from trees 

 planted in the same year, a bushel and a half to the tree in 1881 

 and 1882, there is not a tree of the Russian varieties that have 

 boine a half a bushel. There are several varieties of trees that 

 remained, which were root grafts in 1874, and some of them were 

 grafted two or three years previous to that. Of those that re 

 main there are only two varieties that are good for anything, 

 and they never bear but very little. So I class the Russians like 

 this : Most of them blight; those that remain which bear, three- 

 quarters of them are good for nothing, and the rest don't bear 

 enough to ha good for any purpose excej^t to make up a collec- 

 tion at a fair. 



Mr. Corlett. Do your trees stand in sod or are they cul- 

 tivated^ 



Mr. Brand. They were cultivated for a good many years. 



President Elliot. I would like to know your method of plant- 

 ing, whether shallow or deep! 



Mr. Brand. I plant deep; on heavy timber soil, a black sugar 

 maple soil, underdrained with clay. There is a descent to 

 the southwest. 



.3Ir. Pearce. It seems to me Mr. Brand has put Russians in a 

 bad light, and it don't coincide with ray observation; neither 

 does it with that of a number of other members present 

 who liave orchards in this section of the country. I refer to 

 Andrew Peterson's orchard; he has trees twelve years old and 



