RUSSIAN FRUITS. 



BY CHARL£S GIBB. AHBOTTSFORD. 



It may seem strange that the fruits of Russia are so little 

 known in this country, scarcely known even in Germany, that the 

 fruits of one part of Russia are often but little known in another. 



Our fruits came to us, as it were, by chance. In the days of 

 the old French Colony, the peasants of Normandy and Brittany 

 brought with them the seeds and perhaps the scions of the apples 

 they loved most in their native land. Later, the Englishman 

 introduced his favorite fruits and the Scotchman his ; in time ther 

 matter became commercial, and we soon had under trial in* 

 Canada and in the Eastern States all the best fruits of the mit^ 

 humid portion of Western Europe. 



That not until 1882 we should have begun to explore our own* 

 like climates in the old world seems strange indeed I 



The fruits of Western Euroi)e and their pure offspring born om 

 this continent, as a rule, are not long-lived upon the Westerm 

 prairies above latitude 43^, not a success above 45^ in this- 

 Province, and that only in exceptionally favorable localities. In. 

 Eastern Russia we find fruit growing a profitable industry ini 

 climates decidedly more severe than that of the City of Quebec. 

 Hence we may expect to increase the area of fruit culture north- 

 ward upon this continent very largely. 



The uncertainty of these fruit trees of Western Europe in the 

 severer climates, had led to large importations by the State Agri- 

 cultural College at Ames, Iowa. (See 7th Report Montreal Hort.. 

 Soc, p. 151.) Prof. Budd ha;d gathered there the: largest collection > 



