424 ANNUAL REPORT 



In 1862 I gave Mr. Sias another order for two hundred trees 

 including fifty Duchess. They were yearlings and small at that. 

 Those Duchess are all living yet and are large, fine trees, bear- 

 ing annually from two to six barrels each. 



Since 1865 there has not been a year but I have raised more or 

 less apples, and have planted out some trees almost every year 

 since. For a number of years I have raised from one to five 

 hundred bushels, but the last crop was the largest I have ever 

 raised, as 1 had quite a number of new Eussian varieties just 

 coming into bearing. 



As nearly all my old varieties had been killed off with hard 

 winters previous to 1876, Mr. Sias and myself hoping to get 

 something hardier, got "seedlings on the brain." We hunted 

 up the best in the country and got scions from them and raised 

 little trees and thought we had struck a bonanza. We used no 

 scions that the parent tree had not stood the winters for from 

 twelve to sixteen years. Among this number was the Wealthy. 



In the spring of 1878 I planted out nearly 1,000 of those seed- 

 lings and top-worked a good many more on Transcendent 

 stocks. They are nearly all dead now. 



The same spring I planted out forty Eussian varieties raised 

 from scions sent from the Agricultural Department at Washing- 

 ton to Mr. Sias. These trees are perfectly sound and hardy and 

 have been bearing fruit for five years of as good a quality as any 

 of the eastern fruit. 



They are summer and autumn varieties. This proves to me 

 conclusively that the Duchess, Tetofsky and the New Eussian 

 varieties are the only standard apples that farmers can depend 

 upon for an orchard. I think I can convince any man that these 

 statements are facts if they will take a walk with me in my 

 orchard. 



We must have trees acclimated to this cold climate, and as the 

 Eussians have been raised successfully for generations in a climate 

 similar to our own, they are surely the best and safest for us to 

 plant. 



Observation has taught us that mercury can run as low as 

 forty and even below and injure our trees but little if it only re- 

 mains there for two or three days, which fact we had demon- 

 strated very clearly lasr winter; but when it runs down as low as 

 thirty and remains for two or three weeks with a northwest wind 

 is when we need trees that for generations have been used to such 

 exposure. 



