STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 231 



As is well known the list of imi^ortations made by the agricul- 

 tural college at Ames, comprises several hundred Eussian sorts. 



The action take by our Society one year ago with reference to 

 Eussian fruits, consisted in the recommendation of the following 

 varieties for trial, to-wit: Ostrokoff Glass, Hibernal, Eed Cheeked, 

 Eed Anis, White Pigeon, Autumn Streaked. 



So far as Minnesota seedlings were concerned, there was no ac- 

 tion taken, at least no new variety was named as being better 

 than our well-known Wealthy. It may in fact be questioned 

 wether we shall soon discover a larger seedling winter apple, 

 possessing greater merits, especially when hardiness, fine quality, 

 and beauty of appearance are considered. It might be well, 

 however, for this Society to follow the example of our Iowa 

 friends in offering liberal premiums for hardiest and best vari- 

 eties to be grown and propagated in the future. 



Prof, Budd has ventured the opinion that "an apple tree that 

 will endure, our test winters well must maintain perfect foliage 

 during our hot, changeable summers and must be as determined 

 in habit of ripening its wood as the box elder or hickory; it 

 must have a bark that will not absorb water readily in wet 

 times in autumn or early winter; it must hibernate in winter 

 and have a cell structure practically incapable of freezing." 



At its last annual meeting of the Iowa State Society the list 

 of apples recommended for the northern district, which com- 

 prises forty-two counties of that state, was as follows: Duchess, 

 Wealthy, Whitney and Tetofsky; for trial, Walbridge, Fameuse, 

 Gros Pomier and Talmon Sweet. 



At that same meeting Mr. Speer, of Cedar Falls, supplemented 

 this report by saying: "I believe that many Eussian varieties 

 now on trial will prove valuable to us, but it is useless to recom- 

 mend them now for general planting. There is uo available 

 stock on hand, and if we single out a half a dozen, or a dozen, 

 which we now think most promising, every tree peddler will be 

 hawking them over the whole district in less than a month after 

 the list is published. The real and tangible fact is before us, 

 that aside from the varieties recommended, our apple trees of 

 the North are dead or dying." 



There can be little doubt that Eussian fruits are gaining 

 steadily in favor, especially with many leading orchardists. We 

 close our notes upon the subject with an extract from Rural New 

 Torl-er, from the pen of Dr. T. H. Hoskins of Vermont: 



"I have fully one hundred varieties of Eussian apples growing 



