STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 77 



take note of the dififerent varieties of Russets on exhibition and 

 the name under which they were shown. I have also soHcited 

 samples from the growers. Several important varieties were 

 secured in this way, and I wish at this time to extend thanks 

 to those who so promptly complied with my requests. So 

 much, however, was not accomplished in this way as was 

 desired. I wished to secure samples of all the dififerent kinds 

 of Russets grown in the State, but failed in meeting my desires 

 in this direction in full. 



As a matter of fact the varieties of Russets of special commer- 

 cial value are quite limited in number; and those of any consid- 

 erable merit for home use are still less, it is not the superior 

 value of these apples that gives the inducement for attention at 

 this time. So long as they are grown and put in their appear- 

 ance annually at the exhibitions and on the market, we want 

 to know their names and their merits. Were it not that the 

 Roxbury Russet is freakish about the soil in which it thrives I 

 am not sure but this one variety would be the only one of the 

 name that could be recommended to the attention of growers; 

 and even this, in the later developments of fruit interests has 

 been shorn of a large measure of its importance. One other 

 kind added would fill the measure of Russets that have merit 

 sufiticient to render them of special value. 



LIST OF RUSSETS. 



The names of the dififerent kinds of Russets found in the fruit 

 books are as follows: Roxbury Russet; English Russet, or 

 Poughkeepsie Russet; Golden Russet (of Western New York); 

 American Golden Russet; Hunt's Russet; Fletcher Russet; 

 Red Russet; Win's Russet, or Win Russet; Kennebec Russet; 

 Pomme Grise, which is not a Russet by name but plainly so in 

 characteristics. 



It is on the first four named that our growers get badly 

 mixed. In this attempt to set them aright I will speak of them 

 separately. 



ROXBURY RUSSET. 



It would seem that everybody ought to know so common an 

 apple as this long time favorite. Yet they do not, for every year 

 in our exhibitions we have more or less of Roxbury Russets 



