152 
August 1889. 
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to test very soon. upon vigorous bearing 
trees. Peaches and plums may by this meth- 
od be made to yield fruit the second year. 
While tests made in the manner we propose 
may not be conclusive yet they will give 
some indications of value to form an opin- 
ion of the merits of the fruit tested. Top- 
ping a stick often causes the bark below to 
loosen in a few days even when fully set. 
The Yellow Transparent apple has borne 
the second year with us. We find the size 
medium or nearly so, and that it ripens at 
least a week before the earliest apples of 
Summer. Color transparent white, becom- 
ing yellow at maturity. Quality very 
good for an early apple, tart but crisp and 
tender. Much better in quality than the 
Astrachan, and an early and abundant 
bearer. Desirable for earliness, hardiness 
and quality. — Eli Minch. 
The Russian Transparent Apples. 
It is a great mistake to think that the 
fruit growers of America do not know or 
appreciate a good thing when they see it. 
They not only quickly catch on to a thor- 
oughly good fruit, but they appreciate spec- 
ial points of merit, which may in part atone 
for even serious defects. This is seen in the 
wide sale of sorts like the Kieffer and Comet 
pears, the Concord and Hartford grapes, the 
Ben Davis and Oldenburgh apples, and so on 
through the whole pomological list. Know- 
ing this, I must yet confess a good deal of 
surprise at the rapid and wide spread of the 
Transparent family of Russian apples. I 
suppose that a good many cions of this fam- 
ily were sent out from the Department of 
Agriculture, when first received, in the win- 
ter of 1869-70. I got for my share, just a sin- 
gle 3-iuch cion of Yellow Transparent: and 
I have never heard of another coming to 
this State. Mr. Aaron Webster of East 
Roxbury, Vt., received at the same time 
cions of White Transparent, Charlotten- 
thaler and Sweet Pear, and kindly sent them 
to me, as soon as they bore. In 1873 I got 
a few cions of Grand Sultan from Mr. D. 
W. Adams, of Waukon, Iowa, (now of Flor- 
ida), thus coming into posession of all ex- 
cept Red Duck and Green Transparent, of 
which I have never seen either tree or 
fruit. 
Every fruit-grower knows that we can- 
not find out all about a new variety in a 
few years, or from a single tree. Orchard 
and Garden has objected to Yellow Trans- 
parent but one fault, — that it is too small; 
and that was just my opinion, from the 
fruit of my first tree. After that began to 
bear, which it did profusely at four or five 
years of age, I sent specimens to many 
friends, and about the same time received 
from the above-named gentlemen specimens 
of other members of the family, as stated. 
I think I also got specimens of Charlotten- 
thaler from Prof. Budd. We all agreed 
that the “Thaler” was much the larger ap- 
ple; but when my garden trees of Y. T. be- 
gan to fruit, I found that, with an equal 
chance, this was as large as any of them, — 
quite equal to average Porters, as I find 
them in the Boston market. But the fruit, 
when it sets very full, (as it often does) 
must be thinned, to get the whole crop up 
to this size. Though of very good quality, 
the chief merit of Y. T., as an early market 
apple, is its keeping, and its firmness of 
flesh until fully ripe. If gathered as the 
first faint sign of yellowing appears, around 
the stem, it is good for 20 days, under fair 
conditions. It should be shipped in crates 
having slats so close that their edges will 
not mark the fruit. It would be a good 
idea, by the way, if crate makers would 
round the inside edges of crate slats. 
As to the other apples of this family, the 
fruit is very similar, when grown under 
identical conditions, though I find White 
Transparent smaller, and better in quality 
than the others. The whole family are 
more or less subject to blight, attacking 
not only the bark in the forks of the branch- 
es, but the limbs, much like pear blight. 
I regard Thaler and Sultan as identical, and 
they are both destroyed by blight in my 
grounds in a very few years. Y. T. is much 
more resistant to the disease, the majority 
of my trees escaping it altogether; but if al- 
lowed to over-bear, even it is short-lived, as 
compared with most American varieties. 
The trees should have rich ground and sur- 
face cultivation; and I find 12 feet apart in 
the row wide enough, as they will not often 
remain profitable after reaching a size to 
meet at that distance. While they do last, 
however, no apple is more profitable. Even 
my culls netted nearly $1.00 per bushel last 
year; and trees 3 to 5 inches in diameter 
gave from 4 to 6 bushels of perfect fruit, 
sold mostly as they ran at $1 per 100, which 
is a little more than half a bushel, though 
of select specimens 100 will make nearly a 
bushel. They were all sold in the home 
market, this being a summer resort; but 
Boston dealers have told me that even lots 
of good size would easily net $1.00 per half 
bushel crate in that city, as there is no apple 
there equal to it in appearance or quality, 
at that season. — T. H. Hoskins. 
Heart-shaped Weichsel Cherry. 
Friend Hoskins’ reference to this peculiar 
cherry suggests a queer typographical error 
in my brief note in regard to it in Bulletin 
No. 2 of our Experimental Station. 
The note reads: “It is an evident cross 
between the sweet cherries of the East and 
the Dukes. It is admitted as a lawn tree in 
East Europe on account of its symmetrical 
habit of growth and handsome striped leaves. 
The first impression is that the tree is not 
in perfect health on account of its remarka- 
ble foliage. Fruit large, purplish black, 
heart-shaped and nearly sweet. Highly 
prized for dessert use in East Russia where 
most of the sweet cherries do well.” 
Of course this is nonsense, as no sweet 
cherry of West Europe will live a year on 
the Volga, even near the North shore of the 
Caspian. I wrote: “Highly prized in West 
Europe where most of the sweet cherries do 
well.” 
Our first trees were from C. Rosenthal of 
Vienna. They have proven much hardier 
than Richmond or English Morello in tree 
and fruit bud, yet they are not hardy in the 
sense that Bessarabian and 23 Orel cherry, 
or the Duchess apple, are called iron-clad. 
A much hardier variety of the Eastern 
sweet cherry is the Liangkaia Black which 
we have sent out as “No. 26 Orel.” This is 
hardier than Montmorency Ordinaire in tree 
and fruit bud. The fruit is about the size 
of English Morello with very small pit. 
Flesh dark colored and as sweet as the best 
heart cherries. 
This, and the Heart-shaped Weichsel, will 
prove valuable over large areas of the coun- 
try where the Heart and Bigarreau varieties 
fail in tree or fruit bud. — J. L. Budd, Ames, 
Iowa. 
Orchard Notings. 
This is a very off year in Northeastern 
Vermont, and it is noteworthy that the 
only trees showing even a fair crop are the 
Russians. Quite a large number of Olden- 
burgh, Tetofsky, Alexander, Yellow Trans- 
parent and Prolific Sweeting trees have 
about all they ought to carry. No Ameri- 
can sorts show any considerable amount of 
fruit, except McMahon’s White, Northfield 
Beauty, Wealthy and Scott’s Winter; and, 
by the way, the first of these are Russian 
or Siberian seedlings. 
I am glad to hear that Mr. YanDeman is 
to continue as pomologist of the Agricultur- 
al Department at Washington; but I must 
say that he does very scant justice to Rus- 
sian apples in his last report. He must have 
had a very poor and immature apple, as by 
the measurement he had a small specimen 
of Zolotoreff ; which he says is “white, slight- 
ly blushed and faintly striped on one side; 
flavor dry, acid, unpleasant, very poor.” 
The true Zolotoreff, (as I have it from Prof. 
Budd’s companion on his Russian tour, Mr. 
Chas. Gibb, of Quebec), is a large, oval ap- 
ple, usually rather strongly ribbed; color, 
rich rose red, in broad stripes of two shades: 
mild, sub-acid, rather coarse-grained flesh, 
with a pleasant flavor, much superior to 
Oldenburgh for eating out of hand; — but 
the apple is less desirable for culinary use, 
on account of its ribbed form. Itss eason is 
only a little longer than Oldenburgh, but in 
quality it is good enough to sell freely as a 
dessert apple, which Oldenburgh is not, ex- 
cept for a day or two at its full maturity. 
The North German and Russian cherries 
I have from Prof. Budd stood uninjured 
last winter where the hardiest American 
forms were killed to the snow line. Sever- 
al of them had previously st« od an even se- 
verer season, as we had the mercury frozen 
but once, while that is a frequent occur- 
cence in some of our winters. — T. H. Hos- 
kins. 
P. J. Berckmans says that Tong Pa peach 
is identical with Early Tillotson. 
