^2 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



In reply to my circular letter, that lamented member of our 

 society, Alfred Smith of Monmouth, wrote as follows : 



Mr. Gilbert, 



Dear Sir :—\ will give you what little knowledge I have of the apple 

 inquiredj after. The scions were brought into Monmouth from. New 

 Hampshire twenty years ago or more, by men who came into Monmouth 

 and grafted an orchard on the farm of Charles T. Fox, in my own 

 neighborhood. There is one tree grafted in an orchard in North Mon- 

 mouth. It has not been much disseminated in Maine. I sent scions to a 

 mtin in South China. It keeps as long as the Roxbury Russet. This is 

 about all I can say of it. Truly yours, 



Alfred Smith. 



Dr. True of Bethel, wrote as follows : 



Dear Sir: — I have raised the Red Russet for twenty-five years, but 

 regard it as almost worthless. It cracks the worst of any apple I ever 

 grew. Once in a few years they will not crack, but even then have no 

 great redeeming qualit3^ They will keep till summer, and may serve as 

 a poor substitute for something else. I cannot advise any one to buy or 

 graft this variety so long as there are others so much better. The only 

 'use I could ever make of it was to make sauce of it to go witli green rhu- 

 barb. Yours. 



N. T. True. 



Another correspondent writes : 



Norway, Jan. 25th, 1883. 

 Z. A. Gilbert, Esq., 



Dear Sir: — Noticing your inquiry in the Maine Farmer of recent date, 

 desiring information about an apple known as the Red Russett, I have 

 raised it for ten'years, and think highly of it. The tree is quite as vigor- 

 ous as the Baldwin, and I think more hardy; bears profusely alternate 

 years, and lightly intervening years. It keeps in good condition much 

 later than the Baldwin, and is a better eating apple, keeping sound to the 

 core to the end. It is not cultivated to any extent, there being no bear- 

 ing trees in Norway to my knowledge. It has never been on exhibition 

 at our county fair, except by me. 



It originated in New Hampshire in a very peculiar manner which I do 

 not accept. [Here is reported the same statement before given.] 



I think so much of this apple, were I going to set another orchard I 

 should plant largely of this. 



Please excuse my penciling as I am an old man and my hand is rather 



tremulous. 



Yours truly, 



R. H. RlFTEN. 



