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11 



APPLES. 



Amis. — This is the leading apple of the Volga, the apple tree 

 most highly prized, most largely grown. To the enquiry, which 

 are your most profitable varieties ? the reply invariably was Anis, 

 I think, invariably, my notes show no exception nor do I remem- 

 ber one. Such was the verdict in all the orchards of the different 

 towns and villages between Kazan and Saratof. We first met with 

 it in that curious semi-oriental bazaar, the Nijni Novgorod fair. 

 Here we find the Russian peasant orchardist bringing large quan- 

 tities of it to the bazaar in bark boxes, usually willow bark boxes, 

 holding about three bushels. 



In the southern part of the Government of Kazan, in 

 latitude 55, the same latitude as Moscow, but 430 miles 

 to the east of it, in a continental climate, a climate of ex- 

 tremes, and yet 600 miles nearer the North Pole than the City 

 of Quebec, there are twelve villages where the peasant proprietors 

 are apple growers, the chief industry in fact is apple growing. 

 When we were there the little trees were loaded with fruit, yet the 

 thermometer had been down to forty below zero the winter pre- 

 vious. Five years before, during one day, the temperature on 

 these exposed loess bluffs was — 40 Reaumur, or 58 below zero by 

 Fahrenheiis thermometer. These low temperatures, however, do 

 not seem verified by the meteorological records in the City of 

 Kazan. Hearing of these low temperatures I looked for winter 

 injury to the trees, but did not find any traces of it. 



In answer to the query, which is the hardiest apple tree you 

 have, the tree that has stood best the most trying winters .'' the 

 answer, I believe, always was Anis. The general idea there is 

 that it is of all kinds known, the apple tree that can be grown the 

 farthest North, except what they call the Chinese apple, or as we 

 would say, the Siberian crab, and these crabs, which are not 

 common, are true Siberian Prunifolias, and not less hardy hybrids. 

 In these villages the apple is grown, in a good season, cer- 

 tainly to the value of ^50,000. In this, the coldest profitable 

 orchard region in the world, the Anis is noted as their hardiest 

 tree. ' > ' • ^ .• ; :• 



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