RUSSIAN APPLES. 419 
MY FOUR BEST RUSSIAN APPLES. 
J. B. MITCHELL, CRESCO, IOWA. 
{Read at a meeting of the Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society.) 
I shall have to plead guilty of ignorance in not knowing which 
are “My Four Best.” 
I could make several lists of four kinds each and still be un- 
decided as to which was the best, but if I were to make a dozen I 
should put Leiby, No. 230, alias Recumbent, at the head of each list 
To me it has no fault, in tree or fruit, except to eat from the hand. 
Its other good qualities are sufficient to make this defect insig- 
nificant when selecting forthis latitude. The tree is hardier than the 
Duchess, as free from blight, grows rapidly, coarse and stout and 
is a good bearer, the fruit keeping well towards spring. 
To select kinds for the other three places is more difficult. Yellow 
Transparent (No. 334) should be in every orchard on account of its 
early and prolific bearing of fine looking fruit, although it is less 
hardy than some others. Like many others, it has its near relatives 
_ so much alike in fruit that I am not sure of being right in selecting 
it. Juicy Streaked, 330, or White Queen, either might well take its 
place. 
Lubesk Queen has no apparent relative and no rival in its beauty 
of fruit, it being a purple pink on a ground of waxy white; quality, 
medium; tree straight, well formed and hardy and a prolific bearer. 
A plate of the fruit at a county fair would exhaust the stock of treesin 
the nursery. 
Yellow Sweet, 167, should be included in Northern orchards be- 
cause of its hardiness and quality. It is sweet, of medium size and 
keeps better than I had givenit credit for. The tree is nota rapid 
grower, but is straight and smooth and hasa well-roundedhead. It 
is not an early bearer. 
Rattling Apple is another sweet apple and one that will keep well 
into spring, but to select itin place of the above would be to lose 
largely in quality of tree. 
Lieby (Recumbent), Yellow Transparent or one of its relatives 
named, Lubesk Queen and Yellow Sweet would be four, either of 
which I would dislike to omit from alist of four best when the ob- 
ject was to get distinct kinds combined with hardiness of trees. 
Bergamont and Lead Apple, or Wargul, as in my list, belong toa 
family of several which appear to be the same variety. The two 
named are at least as good asany of that family, and it may be un- 
wise not to include one of them in a list of four best. The trees are 
thrifty growers and good bearers and among the most hardy. The 
fruit is of good size, yellow, medium quality, but I think not as late 
keepers as claimed for them. 
Thaler may when older claim the place of Yellow Transparent. 
As most have the Thaler, I think it is no more or less than the Yel- 
low Transparent; as I have it, the tree is darker in bark, of more 
rapid growth, freer from blight and endures cold better, but does 
not fruit as early. Color, when first ripening, yellow, nearly cov- 
ered with pink stripes, but if left on the tree until they drop the color 
is nearly a solid, deep red. 
