DEVELOPMENT OF HARDY FRUITS 45 



are great differences of climate in summer also, it varying from the 

 extremely dry warm summers of the Okanagan and other Valleys 

 of British Columbia to the cool, moist, summer climate of Prince 

 Edward Island where the winters are rather severe and the cool, 

 moist, summer climate of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia 

 where the winters are mild. It is our desire to obtain fruits specially 

 suited to each of the many climates in the Dominion. 



As the need for hardy varieties for the prairie provinces was and 

 still is very great, there being no known apples of good size that 

 will succeed without protection all over the prairies, an early 

 attempt was made to obtain some suitable for such conditions. 

 The Wild Siberian crab apple, Pynis baccata, which is found wild 

 nearly or quite to the Arctic Circle in Siberia, seed of which was 

 imported from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Petrograd, Russia, in 

 1887 was, on being tested, found to be quite hardy on the open 

 prairies, but the fruit was very small, being only about half an 

 inch or less in diameter and very astringent. The late Dr. Wm. 

 Saunders began crossing this crab apple with named varieties of 

 apples in 1894 the varieties used being such hardy sorts as Tetofsky, 

 Duchess, Wealthy, Mcintosh, Yellow Transparent, and others. 

 He obtained about 800 cross-bred trees as a result of this work, and 

 these began to fruit in 1899. Much the largest proportion of 

 these bore fruit little if any better than the mother parent, but a 

 considerable number showed a marked advance in size and quality. 

 The best were from twelve to fourteen times heavier than the fruit 

 of Pyrm baccata. The largest fruits, however, were under two 

 inches in diameter. Those best in ciuality have little or no astrin- 

 gency and compare well in quality with the well-known crab apples. 

 They have proven hardier than the latter, however. So hardy are 

 some of them that in latitude 58° in the Peace River Country, where 

 the temperature frequently goes down between 50° and 60° Fahr. 

 below zero, fruit has been gi'own. The fruit of nearly all of these 

 has the marked crab apple characteristics of long, slender stem, 

 thin tender skin, and crisp breaking flesh. The names given to 

 some of these are Charles, Jewel, Silvia, Elsa, and Tony. A large 

 number of trees of these crab apples were sent out to settlers in 

 the prairie provinces between 1903 and 1906, and in many reports 

 recently received the people have expressed their appreciation of 

 these hardy fruits. 



