524 



TESTED RUSSIAN APPLES. 



themselves in producing a crop of fruit would in a few 

 years become constitutionally enfeebled, far more so 

 than if an opposite course were pursued ; and yet if it 

 were possible to procure a stock of Chas. Downing 

 plants as vigorous and healthy as those I obtained when 

 it first came out, I have no idea I could by any possible 

 treatment succeed as well with it as I did then, because 

 the fungi so prevalent now were then unknown, and as 

 these parasitic diseases multiply it renders the success of 



all our varieties more and more precarious. By practic- 

 ing extra care in regard to the hygienic condition of the 

 plants, as President Smith, of Wisconsin, does with his 

 Wilsons, any variety would doubtless hold its own much 

 longer than if less caution was used. The intelligent 

 fruit grower, to be successful, must keep pace with the 

 advancing and multiplying forces of his enemies or he 

 will get left, most assuredly. 



E. Williams. 



TESTED RUSSIAN APPLES. 



^HE CALL of Minnesota, in 



1867-8, to the National 

 Department of Agricul- 

 ture, for an importation 

 of apple trees from the 

 country that had supplied 

 the only good varieties 

 (Oldenburgh and Te. 

 tofsky) which, up to that 

 time, had been found able to resist the test winters 

 of that region, was responded to with a surprising 

 degree of completeness. Even to-day, with all the 

 after-raking of the Budd-Gibb expedition, it would 

 be difficult to find in many orchards any bearing 

 apple trees of this race not included in that list. 

 This is not said with any view of disparaging the 

 labors of those gentlemen. Far from that ; the 

 critical study of Russian pomology made by them 

 has brought order out of the chaos of the Depart- 

 ment list, and has bestowed upon us all the iron- 

 clad pears, plums and cherries required to complete 

 our supply of tree fruits, and place northern orchard- 

 ists on something like an equality with those of the 

 rest of the country. In apples, the work, now pro- 

 ceeding under the hands of Professor Budd, in dis- 

 criminating varieties and eliminating synonyms, 

 and also in classifying the whole list according to 

 the merits of each variety, as to quality and cli- 

 matic adaptation, cannot be over-rated. Professor 

 Budd, in the most laborious and careful way, is 

 doing for the iron-clad fruits what the Downings 

 did for the longer known varieties. No one has 

 had more reasons for gratitude to him for this work 

 than myself. 



But as intimated above, the drag-net of the Depart- 

 ments' Russian correspondent operated very thoroughly. 

 Just 250 named varieties are given in the original printed 

 list, sent out with the cions. But these cions were dis- 

 tributed so miscellaneously and unintelligently that it is 

 not very probable that more than one-half of the varie- 

 ties are accessible, even if existent. Instead of being 

 sent to nurserymen in the northern tier of states, or to 

 leading brchardists in that section, they were sent in 



the same way as garden seeds. The larger quantity 

 thus went outside the limit within which they might have 

 proved specially valuable ; and worse still, they went to 

 hundreds of men in the section where they were needed, 

 who had no stocks upon which to graft .them, even if 

 they knew how to graft. Even where they may have 

 been used, and proved valuable to the user, they were 

 generally hid in out-of-the-way places, and practically 

 buried from the public. I cannot learn, after much 

 inquiry, that a single variety from this distribution was 

 ever propagated in Maine or New Hampshire ; and I 

 am one of but three persons in Vermont who are 

 known to have received and propagated them. There 

 must have been some careless labelling, for among the 

 ten varieties sent to me, one which proved to be very 

 closely related to Alexander, if not identical, had the 

 label of " Riabinouka, " which is described as a small 

 apple by Dr. Regel, of St. Petersburgh. 



As rapidly as I could, I acquired others in this list 

 from my correspondents, east and west, as soon as 

 fruited. In this way I got Grand Sultan from D. W. 

 Adams, of Waukon, Iowa (now of Florida), and Charlot- 

 tenthaler from Professor Budd, who was then a nursery- 

 man at Shellsburgh, in the same state. I also got White 

 Transparent and Sweet Pear from Aaron Webster, 

 of Roxbury, Vt. ; and another apple — the label lost — 

 from Mr. Howard, of West Randolph, Vt. This last 

 was very much like my " Riabinouka," of the Alexander 

 type, yet not quite the same ; and we now know, by way 

 of Messrs. Budd and Gibb, that there are in Russia fami- 

 lies of apples (probably seedlings from orchards of single 

 varieties), which produce nearly identical fruit, yet on 

 trees showing considerable differences. The Alexander 

 type is known there as the Aports, while Grand Sultan, 

 Charlottenthaler, Sweet Pear and White and Yellow 

 Transparent are known as the Transparent family. 

 The Longfield, Good Peasant and English Pippin, as we 

 have them, constitute another family. 



Though I was acquainted with the fact of this impor- 

 tation, and received a share in it among the first, twenty 

 years ago, it may appear a singular fact that I have as 

 yet planted and grown extensively but a single variety — 

 the Yellow Transparent. The reason is that among the 

 first sorts I got hold of, though most of them had merit, 

 and all were iron-clad, this was the only one of much 

 commercial value. St. Peters, a nice little early apple. 



