20 



roundish, of a dark purplish red, covered with a light bloom, much 

 like the Blue Pearmain. It was above medium in size, although 

 the trees were so overloaded ; a firm solid acid fruit said there to 

 keep two years. It also has the merit of holding on to the tree 

 so firmly, that I could hardly find a windfall. It and Steklianka 

 were the only varieties in this orchard not yet picked, on 8th 

 Sept. At Saratof on the Volga we visited an orchard of 12,000 

 trees, where a week or two before, they were employing 300 

 pickers and 85 packers to ship to Moscow 25,000 poods of apples. 

 In a good year they either did (or could, I am not sure that I un- 

 derstood correctly) produce 85,000 poods, which is equal to 1530 

 tons. From our description of the Tchougounka at Volsk they sup- 

 posed it to be the Arabskoe — which apple they thought highly of and 

 placed upon their list as third for profit. This Arabskoe has been 

 long known at Saratof. The query is whether the trees I have 

 spoken of as growing at Volsk and Saratof, are the same as the 

 Arabka of Kozlof and of Mr. Shroeder ; if so, the Arabka is 

 likely to prove a valuable late keeper. A specimen picked at 

 Volsk on 8th Sept. was eaten by us at Warsaw on Oct. 4th, a 

 crude juicy sharp acid. It had been carried for nearly four weeks 

 in a leather bag, which was usually full of books and apples, a 

 bag which had its f-all share of rough usage, except when used for 

 my pillow, and yet this apple had received no injury. This Volsk 

 Arabska is really a remarkable keeper. 



On the Bogdanoif estates near Kursk, we are shown a 

 Tchougounka, a large round apple not quite as dark as at Volsk, 

 and looking rather more like what we saw at Kozlof. This is 

 found there to be a good cooking fruit, and a good keeper, but 

 the tree is only fairly hardy, not ironclad as we would say. 



The Arabka, and Arabka Polasatoe of Kegel are altogether 

 different apples; so, too, is that shown to us at Nijni Novgorod, an 

 &%% shaped, fair sized, hard, long keeper. 



Arcad. I am not sure that there is any apple in this family of 

 special value. They are a family of early apples, sweetish, and of 

 but medium size, but the trees have proved very hardy. 



In Moscow in 1877, during one week the thermometer ranged 



