STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 425 



exposed to its rays. This is the approved method of observation, 

 vsrhich, when applied in our climate, will, I think, give results 

 highly favorable — showing that the solar heat of our growing sea- 

 son is sufficient to mature all early varieties, not only of the fruits 

 named, but of peaches, also. 



Our mean summer temperature is greater than t\vA of Paris, in 

 the vicinity of which all the fruits named are cultivated with great 

 success. 



The obstacle to our success in fruit growing, thus far, therefore, 

 is our Russian winter climate. 



The fruits I have named are cultivated with success in Russia, 

 Pallas, who visited Moscow, near the close of the last century, 

 states that these fruits were then cultivated in that vicinity, '' and 

 sold at reasonable prices," 



Mentelle & Maltebrun, in their great work published in Paris, 

 in 1803, give an account of the fruits cultivated in Russia, embrac- 

 ing apples, pears, cherries and plums. A variety of apples grown 

 at Kervsk, they describe as weighing four pounds, of a delicious 

 flavor, and keeping a long time. Another variety of apples grown 

 in the vicinity of Moscow, which was brought from China, they 

 describe as so transparent that when held up to the light, one can 

 count the seeds in it. They state that in several of the districts of 

 Russia, the exportation of fruits, and especially of apples, is an 

 extensive branch of commerce — that the exportation of apples 

 from the towns of Kalouga and Simbirsk, amounts to from 18,000 

 to 20,000 roubles annually; and that in some parts of Russia, the 

 cultivation of the cherry for the manufacture of Kirschwasfier, is 

 carried on very extensively. 



On the Volga and on the steppes of the Caspian, all the fruits I 

 have named, including varieties of the peach, are profitably cul- 

 tivated. 



Xavier Hommaire de Hell, in his travels over the steppes of the 

 Caspian, in 1838, describes a splendid fruit garden, owned by a 

 Russian noble, at Clereofka, where he says ''all kinds of fruits are 

 collected here together. We counted more than fifty varieties of 

 pears in one alley." 



Adolph Erman in his travels through Russia and Siberia in 1840 

 mentions with surprise that he found at Torxhok, on the road 

 from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, north of latitude 57 deg., and 

 at Vladimir, north of 56 deg., that "cherries of a superior kind " 

 were extensively grown and sold at a very low price. 



