ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 313 



and the most vigorous growth of all trees cultivated in the 

 West ; the easiest of all to bud with, a bud seldom misses, 

 and makes extraordinary growth the first season ; it may 

 well be culled the nurseryman's favorite ; bears very young, 

 abundantly every year, good on all soils. Fruit medium 

 size, yellow ground with red stripes and the whole over- 

 laid with a bloom, like a plum ; tender, juicy, melting, sub- 

 acid, rich ; it has a peculiarity of ripening ; it begins at the 

 skin and ripens toward the core ; often soft and seemingly 

 ripe on the outside while the inside is yet hard. Ripens 

 from October to December. One of the best of all 

 fruits. 



14. GOLDEN RUSSET. This admirable apple is put in the 

 list of fall fruits, because, though it will keep through the 

 winter, it ripens in November, and sometimes even in 

 October. Tree, strong grower, upright, compact top- 

 healthy, grows late in foil and therefore subject to winter- 

 killing ; will grow on all soils, but delights in rich sandy 

 loams, on which it bears larger and finer fruit. Fruit small, 

 rather oblong ; color yellow, slight red next to the sun ; 

 although called russet, there is but a trace of it on the fruit 

 of healthy trees ; tender, melting, spicy, very juicy ; in 

 flavor it resembles the St. Michael's pear (Doyenne) more 

 nearly than any other apple. 



This fruit is the most popular of all late, fall, or early 

 winter apples, and deservedly, and should be put at the 

 head of the list. A gentleman near Belfre, Ohio, being 

 applied to for a list of apples to furnish an orchard of a 

 thousand trees for marketing purposes, replied, " Take nine 

 hundred and ninety-nine golden russets, and the rest you 

 can choose to suit yourself." For nursery purposes it is 

 rather a backward apple; the buds apt to fail, which 

 occasions much resetting. It will not do well grafted on 

 the root, being ten* In- and always largely winter-killed 

 when so wrought. They graft kindly on well established 



stocks. 



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