278 ANNUAL EEPORT. 



upon soil and mode of growing. The apricot and mulberry 

 are yet grown in considerable quantity, but the varieties are lower 

 in quality for dessert use than farther west. 



The belt corresponding with Minnesota, up to the 45th parallel, 

 including southern Dakota and northern Wisconsin, will reach 

 the highest attainable success with the fruits of Simbirsk, Penza, 

 Riazan and Tula, on the north line ot the black soil section of Russia. 

 The visitors to these little known provinces, reaching up to the 55th 

 parallel of north latitude, will be surprised to find so many varie- 

 ties of excellent apples for all seasons, and so many variations of 

 the indigenous Bergamot and Grucha pear, most of which are ex- 

 cellent for culinary use, and a few are from fair to good for eating. 

 The only forms of the cherry grown in quantity are of the Griotte 

 race, and the trees are grown in commercial orchards in bush form, 

 with several stems, and pruned on the renewal system of taking 

 out the old wood. In size, liavor, and amount of grape sugar, 

 they far excel any one of the Kentish type found in south Europe. 



To those who may conclude that the apples of this high latitude 

 in Europe will materially change their season of maturity when 

 grown in the Minnesota belt ten degrees farther south, it will be 

 well to suggest that the prevailing summer winds of this part of 

 Russia are from the southeast, coming up from Arabia, Persia, and 

 the heated steppes of southeastern Russia. Hence the average 

 summer temperature is reallj'' higher than that of the Minnesota 

 belt across our valley, while the winters are much colder and with 

 less average snowfall. 



In the extreme upper portion of our valley in northern Minne- 

 sota and Dakota, even in the great valley with the northern trend 

 at Lake Winnipeg, the possibility of successfully growing the apple, 

 pear and cherry exists. The ancient provinces of Kazan, Nishny, 

 Novgorod, and Vladimir, even north and far to the east of Moscow 

 on the fiftj'-seventh parallel of north latitude, grow apples for all 

 seasons, of excellent qualit}' in a commercial way. In this coldest 

 orchard region of the world, the little trees seem as hardy as the 

 Siberian crabs, yet the fruit sells well in Moscow in competition 

 with that from the south. 



The far northern pears of this section are quite as hardy in tree, 

 but the fruit is too low in quality for consumption in the large 

 cities; yet it is grown in great quantity for culinary use among the 

 peasants, and for exporting to Perm on the northeast verge of the 

 plain. As nn ornamental tree, this far northern form of the Ber- 

 gamot has much merit, and it gives us a hint of possibilities in 



