130 ANNUAL REPORT, 



as the tests I have made. And I consider the Wealthy as hardy 

 as anything that has originated in our State. 



The country from which these Eussian varieties come is very 

 similar to this; it is a great prairie country of a thousand mileft 

 in extent, — a rich prairie country, many portions of it. There 

 are orchards there situated in what we would consider very un- 

 favorable localities, on deep, black soil; but they are successful, 

 and in those orchards they have been growing fruit for hundreds 

 of years. I thought myself, at the start, that we never should be 

 able to find anything among the Eussian apples that would keep, 

 from the fact that the trees there were grown so much further 

 north than here, and it is a so much colder country that the 

 apples that were there winter apples would become fall apples 

 here. But we have fruited some that were good keepers, som«* 

 that will keep nearly to the time of the season of new apples. So 

 that idea has been dissipated. We are going to have a fair num- 

 ber of late-keeping Eussian apples. For summer we have an early 

 apple and a better apple than anything else that I have ever 

 grown for an early apple; that is, considering the quality and its 

 appearance, for the market; I do not think we have an apple 

 that is equal to it, as an early apple. It is longer in season than 

 any early apple I have ever known. My apples get ripe about 

 the twenty-fifth of July. I had some at our State fair that had 

 been lying on a shelf in an upper room until the time of the fair 

 and that were in good condition. This apple, so far as quality 

 is concerned, is about like the Early Harvest; I think they are 

 a better apple. The tree seems to be perfectly hardy and is a 

 very early bearer; have had the tree bear when only three years 

 old from the graft; it is a very desirable tree for an early fruit. 



Then we have another early apple that is better in quality, — 

 in fact we have nothing better so far as quality is concerned ex- 

 cept the Early June. It would not be a good market apple 

 because it scabs somewhat, but it is of very fine quality; the tree 

 is very hardy. 



There seems to be a peculiarity that these trees come in sort 

 of classes. There is the Alexander class, there are several apples 

 of that class, all subject to blight, every one; the Tetofsky, and 

 six or seven of that class of apples have the same peculiarity. 

 There are others more showy than the Alexander, some of them 

 that are striped atid quite large; these apples are subject quite 

 as much to blight as the Alexander; but as the trees get older 

 they do not show the blight so much. Then we have a class of 



