ORCHARDS. 267 
‘little stronger grower wherever I have seen it. The Ostrekoff and An- 
tonovka are with me vigorous growers, producing fruit of excellent qual- 
ity that keeps well into winter, but thus far they have not fruited as 
heavily as I could wish. In the second list I will not at this 
time name varieties, but would suggest such as are promising the best 
on the grounds of the state experiment station at St. Anthony Park. 
In the exhibits at the fairs we find them shown under the names by 
which the growers received the trees (or possibly by names attached to 
cover all the varieties on which premiums are offered), and many times 
as only Russians, and consequently half the value of the exhibit is lost. 
As soon as possible the names of varieties should be corrected and each 
variety, before being eligible to a recommendation by this society or to ex- 
hibition for special premiums,should be catalogued and correctly described. 
From the fact that numbers of the trees make aslow and feeble growth in 
the nursery, I am inclined to the opinion that the stocks generally used 
in their propagation are not congenial, and that we may get better results 
by growing the stocks from the seeds of Russian varieties produced in our 
own state. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Brand: At the beginning of that report he says that he 
saw that no evidence anywhere of any injury to Russian apples. 
I wrote an article some time last spring for the ‘‘Farm, Stock and 
Home,” in which I said I would be glad to show people the dif- 
ference in hardiness between Russians and other varieties, 
where there were thousands of them to be compared. The block 
that I had reference to was a block of yearling trees. I had 
mulched along the rows for perhaps ten rods, and as far as the 
mulching went the Russians, and the Lieby especially, showed 
no injury whatever; but, just as quick as the mulching stopped, 
any bodycould tell by the appearance of the trees where it stop- 
ped. There was a great deal of injury done where the trees were 
notmulched. This was also true of a number of other varieties 
that I received from Mr. Somerville, which were supposed to 
be his best varieties. They were all root-killed. There were 
other varieties near them that were not injured. A year ago 
last summer, when I was at Mr. Peterson’s place, he said he 
should never plant another Russian apple tree, on account of 
the injury done to them by the blight; but ‘‘time heals all 
wounds,” and people are liable to forget the unpleasant things 
they have passed through, so I presume we shall go on plant- 
ing Russian apple trees. However, we shall not be able to judge 
of them thoroughly until we get another winter like that of 1884. 
Mr. Harris: Mr. Chairman, I have contended all along that 
we don’t know anything about Russian apples. We don’t know 
