7^ STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



gooseberry, blackberry, and the numerous kinds of plums, 

 including a few Burbanks, — all this will serve to fix the atten- 

 tion and affection of the young people upon rural affairs and 

 farm life, and even if they leave the farm for other pursuits, it 

 will be a pleasure in all their after life to look back to so pleas- 

 ant recollections as such scenes will afford. Therefore such a 

 work as this calls for more attention. There are many things 

 which might be said in this connection. Our society embraces 

 the subject of flowers as well as fruits, and we should offer 

 encouragement all along the line, as it all has a tendency to 

 make our homes more pleasant, and we should strive to make 

 them typical homes, so that the homes of Maine may be taken as 

 an example not only for our own country but for the whole 

 world to follow. 



THE RUSSETS OF MAINE. 

 By Z. A. Gilbert. 



There are many varieties of Russet apples grown in this State. 

 Much confusion has existed among fruit growers over the 

 names of the different varieties of these Russet apples. This is 

 plainly shown at the annual exhibitions of this society. The 

 officers frequently and sometimes the judges employed to award 

 the prizes, are confused over the nomenclature of this class of 

 fruit. At our last autumn exhibition, of a dozen or more plates 

 in one class there were but two true to name as assembled in the 

 space assigned. To aid somewhat in bringing something of 

 order out of such confusion is the purpose of this paper. 



In the very start, however, of our effort to classify and name 

 the different Russets grown, the difficulty is encountered that 

 the authorities on fruit nomenclature are in a measure puzzled 

 and mystified over this matter, as our growers and exhibitors 

 have been. This is the case from Samuel Cole down through 

 the whole list to the present time. Hence studying the fruit 

 books does not lead us out of the woods. The only course, 

 then, is to study the fruit itself. This I have attempted to do 

 in so far as it could be done in one season. The course taken 

 has been to visit as many fruit shows as possible in the time and 



