88 ANNUAL REPORT 



Eussians. If they are hardy we can top-work them, if the qual- 

 ity of the fruit is not satisfactory. I have three hardy varieties 

 of winter varieties which I have grown in that way. I 

 budded trees on the last day of May and they failed; my next 

 budding was on the ninth of June. I kept on at different times 

 till the twenty-fourth of August, and have a thousand buds 

 living in the different kinds of stock, budded on the Eus- 

 sians. Have top-worked Duchess and other Eussian varieties 

 in what is reported as long-keeping winter apples. The first 

 three years I sowed the orchard to buckwheat; the last three iu 

 clover. My location is about thirty-five miles south of the 

 Minnesota state line. Our hope there is in the Eussians, and if 

 that fails I am going to sell out and go to Tennessee or some- 

 where else. 



Mr. Gideon. I got a great many of the Eussian varieties, of 

 cions, and set out^the trees some years ago. The blight de- 

 stroyed all but three of the trees in the orchard, and the fruit of 

 those proved to be worthless. Afterward I had some 230 varie- 

 ties. But the blight destroyed most of them. Four years ago 

 I had some 7,000 orchard trees; over 2,000 went down entirely, 

 and others were damaged. I still had 20 Eussian varieties 

 left, but two years ago took most of those; only 2 of the list bore 

 last season. Our soil is a rich, warm loam, and brings forward 

 trees quickly, and they are generally in bloom some two weeks 

 earlier than trees a mile away, on clay soil. 



The injury to fruit trees two years ago was caused by the early 

 freeze. Before cold weather set in I was in my orchard and 

 noticed when I broke the twigs that the bark would peel as 

 well as in June; it froze hard that night and that used up my 

 Eussians. The stock I had was about the same as Duchess and 

 Wealthy in hardiness; but none of them were able to stand two 

 years ago when they were caught in a full flow of sap. My 

 doctrine is that it takes a tree with the Siberian crab in it to 

 stand the influence of the sap flow and bear the next year. 



Mr. Dartt. I wish to inquire of Mr. Corlett if his Ben. Davis 

 wer<' not as hardy as the Eussian varieties at the same age? 



Mr. Corlett. When the cold wave struck the Ben. Davis and 

 cleaned (ham out the trees were about twelve years old and had 

 borne thiee crops; the Eussians I have now were set in the 

 spring ul' 1880. 



jMr. Smith. Mr. Branl, didn't you have some Haas that stood 

 well till they wei-e about twelve years uld? 



