336 ANNUAL REPORT 



REPLY. 



Viola, Jan. 9, 1888. 

 Friend Brand, 



I will try and answer your questions as near as possible: 



1. Twenty or twenty-five of the New Russians. 



2. I cannot answer that question very correctly, but one tree last 

 fall, I think, had six bushels of apples. 



3. Nine years this spring, those in profitable bearing; but I have 

 planted some each spring since. I think I have fifty or sixty varieties 

 in my orchard. 



4. Three and four years. The largest apple I raise is the Gharla- 

 moff; the best bearer is the Antonovka and Red Streaked; the prettiest 

 apple is one I cannot name, nor could Prof. Budd. Mr. Sias calls it 

 the Wax Transparent; a biennial bearer. Then I have the Winter 

 Oporto. I have a yellow apple; its name 1 do not know, but a good 

 bearer; fruit fair. I have Red, Yellow and Sweet Anis; trees young 

 and shy bearers. 



5. I do not know correctly, but in 1886 I think I had twenty-five 

 or thirty bushels. 



6. Hazel brush or clay soil. 



T. Yes; a spring branch on the north near the orchard; timber on 

 the west; valley narrow. 



8. Yes; on the west natural timber; north, willows and burr oaks; 

 east, willows; south, Norway spruce. All around the orchards are 

 rows of evergreens, and some scattering trees in the orchard. 



9. The spring branch runs water the year round. The well water 

 comes in at a depth of thirty feet. 



10. I have raised Talman Sweet apples, Fameuse, Grolden Russet, 

 Ben Davis, and a number of other varieties. The last crop of Talman 

 Sweet, Golden Russet and Snow apples was raised in 1883. 



My orchard is on a northern slope; clay subsoil. I pasture it with 

 hogs in the summer, and mulch heavy each other year. By so doing 

 the hogs and mulch keep the grass from the trees. Twenty-nine years 

 ago I set out fifty Duchess trees. I cultivated for three years, then 

 seeded down and pastured with hogs. I have that number of trees 

 yet, all sound and right, and get over two hundred bushels of apples 

 per year. 



While I have great faith in some of the New Russians, I have some 

 varieties that bear the poorest apples I ever tasted. 



Yours, 



Wm. Somerville. 



