October 8, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



487 



France and Germany of the Splendens type are superior in 

 every respect to the old varieties, and are now loaded with 

 handsome fruit, shown amid clean, handsome foliage. 



Salix ROSMARINIFOLIA. — As an object lesson the attention of 

 the junior class in horticulture was to-day directed to the 

 plants of Salix rosmarinifolia from Ellwanger & Barry, and 

 to the variety of the species from Voronesh, in central Russia. 

 Since July there has not been a leaf on the west European va- 

 riety, while at this late date the Russian form is clothed with 

 perfect dark green, Fern-like foliage, and is an object of beauty. 

 At any season and in any part of the country the Rosemary- 

 leaved Willow from the East will be prized as a lawn shrub. 



Roses. — The varieties of Rosa rugosa from China, central 

 Asia and Russia have not flagged a leaf or made less apparent 

 growth than usual during the dry period. 



Spiracas. — Of the hardy varieties and species the most per- 

 fect and vigorous have been 6". triloba, S. Van Hontieii, S. cal- 

 losa alba and 6". rubra from Russia, S. hypericifolia and S. 

 Nobleana. 



Caraganas. — The most northern species, such as C. arbor- 

 cscens, have not endured the heat and drought without partial 

 or complete loss of foliage. But some of the shrub varieties 

 from the eastern steppes have stood remarkably well and 

 flowered profusely. Of these C.fntticosa, C. fruticosa varie- 

 gata, C. macropliylla, C. mollis glabra and C. Redowsky stand 

 well at the head. 



This list only includes a few trees and shrubs studied as 

 object lessons by the junior class yesterday and to-day. 



Iowa Agricultural College. J • J--. hU(t(t. 



Judging the Quality of Apples. 



"THE Maine Farmer reports Pomologist Van Deman, of the 

 -*- United States Department of Agriculture, as saying in his 

 address to the fruit-growers at the state fair in Lewiston : " I 

 hear that you have taken to testing the Russian apples, which 

 are very poor in quality"; and I wish to enter a protest against 

 the hasty and inconsiderate way in which whole classes of fruit 

 are condemned together. It cannot be justly said of the apples 

 of any country that they are " very poor." 



English apples are looked upon by Americans as inferior to 

 their own varieties ; and it is even claimed that the best Eng- 

 lish apples — the Ribston and Blenheim Pippins — are better 

 grown on this side of the Atlantic. But the English, while ad- 

 mitting the brighter color of our apples, deny that the quality 

 is better than in those produced by their own skillful fruit- 

 growers. 



When we speak of the quality of apples, the uses to which 

 they are put must be considered. Downing says of the Tal- 

 man Sweet : " In quality this fruit is scarcely second-rate, but 

 it is a very popular and profitable sort." All over the country 

 Ben Davis meets with criticism as to its quality, yet it is un- 

 doubtedly the leading commercial apple of the United States, 

 and Downing classes it as " good to very good." Among Rus- 

 sian apples, Alexander, Red Astrachan and Oldenburgh are 

 rated high upon the American Pomological Society's select 

 list of 369 varieties. This high rating is not accorded to any of 

 these five sorts for dessert quality; yet their value as commer- 

 cial apples is indisputable, and they are as extensively planted 

 (in some sections, at least) as any varieties on the list. This 

 shows that high dessert quality is not and ought not to be the ■ 

 only standard by which apples are rated "good" or "poor." 



Surely it is no more right to condemn the Russian apples as 

 being "very poor" because some of the largest and best 

 known among them belong to the class of culinary apples, 

 than it would be to call all American varieties "very poor" 

 because some of the leading and best known sorts, such as 

 those named above, or others that might be added, are not 

 dessert fruit. Much the larger part of the apples grown in 

 this and other countries is devoted to culinary use. This 

 seems to be forgotten by a large number of writers on fruit, 

 but surely it ought not to be. 



In regard to more recently introduced Russian apples it 

 must be said, and borne in mind, that very few of them have 

 had that wide and general testing, without which all pro- 

 nounced opinion in regard to quality must be looked upon as 

 a "snap judgment." A public official, above all, should be- 

 ware of anything like the expression of a hasty and immature 

 opinion on subjects of importance specially committed to his 

 charge. 



Of the 250 named varieties of Russian Apples that have been 

 brought into this country within the last twenty years, I know 

 no man who can say that he has ever had an opportunity of 

 fairly testing as many as fifty. My own list covers but forty- 

 two varieties, on which 1 have had more or less fruit. I am 



in my sixty-third year, and have been familiar with the apples 

 of New England, the Ohio Valley, the St. Lawrence and Cham- 

 plain Valleys, and of New York-, from my youth ; yet I feel no 

 hesitation in saying that the Russian Apples in my orchard are 

 not inferior in size, beauty, productiveness and vigor to the 

 native varieties of any of these sections. They have, indeed, 

 formed the finest and most attractive part of exhibits where 

 they have competed with our native apples, or with the best 

 known apples of western Europe that are grown in America. 

 As to the quality of these apples as a class, there are but two, 

 possibly three, of mine that I would rate as very poor — or, to 

 be more precise, as poor as the Ben Davis, when grown in 

 New England. These are Green Crimean, the Spreading 

 Pipka and the Yellow Arcadian. In the class of useful culi- 

 nary Apples the Russian list is rich, and many of these are 

 fully equal to any American or west European apples that I 

 am acquainted with. We have no better market apples of 

 this class for good flavor, easy cooking, salableness or produc- 

 tiveness than the best Russians, of which Red Astrachan, 

 Oldenburgh and Alexander are well known types. 



Of strictly dessert apples I have not yet found among the 

 Russians many of the very highest type equal to Garden 

 Royal, Hunt Russet, Grimes' Golden or Peck's Pleasant. But 

 in a class just below these there is a considerable list, increas- 

 ing rapidly now as the later importations come into bearing. 

 I class as " very good "dessert apples the Yellow Transparent, 

 Switzer, Longfield, Golden White, Autumn Streaked, Zolotoreff, 

 Titus, Popoff and Prolific Sweeting, and these are not only 

 very good, but they are also large, productive and attractive — 

 some of them strikingly beautiful. 



The strongest indictment against the Russian Apples, so 

 far,-has been the lack of long keepers among them. The 

 earlier importations had hardly any of these, and we are but 

 just beginning to find them among those now coming into 

 bearing of the more recent ones. The fruit-growers of the "cold 

 north" may rest assured that there are good keeping apples 

 among them. This is certain, and also that they are of good 

 to very good quality ; but time is required to definitely place 

 them. Though many of us who are trying them have found 

 that the few first fruits of these varieties will keep as well at 

 least as many in the accepted lists of American winter apples, 

 we must have them in quantity, so that they can be handled not 

 as single specimens, but by the barrel and car-load, before 

 their exact status can be assigned them. 



I feel sure that when the Russian apples are fairly judged 

 they will make their way easily. No fruit can receive its pro- 

 per place from a test of specimens sent by mail and cut on 

 arrival, as I suppose has been the case with Mr. Van Deman. 

 There is a time when any fruit is at its best, and eaten too soon 

 or too late it is not possible to rightly know it. Some varieties 

 have a short season as dessert fruit, and this is true not only 

 of summer and fall apples, but of the longer keepers. 

 Jewett's Fine Red, for instance, has a season of less than a 

 month when it is really fine ; and all fruit-growers can name 

 other sorts of which the same may be said. There is also a 

 vast difference in the quality of the same variety, according to 

 how it is grown and handled. Some choice sorts never show 

 their merits in the hands of careless persons. The Roxbury 

 Russet is hardly "good" at any time during its long period 

 when undersized or grown on unsuitable soil. But I have 

 eaten these great Russets in May and June that were grown 

 on the red iron soil of some of the Maine hills, when it was a 

 full match for Mr. Van Deman's favorite, Grimes' Golden. It 

 may thus be pronounced "very good" or "very poor," ac- 

 cording to circumstances, and the same is true of many of the 

 condemned Russians. 



Newport, Vt. 1 ■ H. HoskuiS. 



Effect of Forest-Management on Orchards. 



MR. FERNOW'S treatment of this subject from the point 

 of view of an entomologist (see p. 462) suggests a para- 

 graph on the relations between the wood-lot and the orchard 

 from the botanical side of the question. The intimate rela- 

 tionship between the Cedar and the Apple-tree was illustrated 

 during the present summer. There were complaints of a 

 serious rust in a large Apple-orchard near Titusville, Mercer 

 County, New Jersey, and in July I found the orchard, which 

 occupies a hill-side, so conspicuously colored by the rust that 

 it was the subject of remark by passengers upon the railroad 

 trains. Not all the trees were equally attacked. The variety 

 known as the Nero was the worst, while some other sorts 

 at that time were nearly free from the rust. In several trees 

 there were two or more kinds of fruit, and one might be 

 rusted badly and the other nearly free. 



