August, 1891. 
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135 
Orchard Notings. 
KNOWLEDGE OF RUSSIAN APPLES. 
It seems rather queer to note Mr. Barry 
of Rochester, N. Y. , complaining, as he is 
reported having done at the recent Nursery- 
men’s Convention, that he could get no re- 
liable information about the newer Russian 
apples. I think that if he would procure 
the Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Mon- 
treal Pomological Reports for the past ten 
years, and look them over carefully, he 
would find a good deal of information on 
the subject referred to. It is now twenty 
years since the importation of Russian va- 
rieties by the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture; and although the cions were distri- 
buted in the most stupid manner by the 
Department, (they being scattered among 
the people everywhere instead of being di- 
vided among the nurserymen and orchard- 
ists of the colder north, )a considerable num- 
ber of them are now pretty well known to 
northern fruit growers. Among these are 
Yellow Transparent, Prolific Sweeting, St. 
Peter, Switzer, Borsdorf, Charlamotf, the 
Anises, Longfield, Heidorn's Streaked, Ti- 
tus, Zolatoreff , Lieby, Popoff, Smelling Ap- 
ple, Vargul, Raspberry, Sugar Barbel, Hi- 
bernal, the Cross Apples, Babuschkin, Zu- 
soff, Golden White, Antonovka, and quite 
a number tnore of which he could very eas- 
ily obtain specimens in either the north- 
western or northeastern states, or Canada. 
AS GOOD AS “DUCHESS.” 
As reported in the American Garden, I 
see that Mr. Barry said: “We would like to 
know which of the Russians, other than the 
Duchess, (Oldenburgh?) have proved desira- 
ble.” Well, of the same season, or a little lat- 
er, Zolatoreff and Titus are both as good as 
Oldenburgh for cooking, as large, handsome 
and apparently as productive, and decided- 
ly better in dessert quality. For prolong- 
ing the season, Autumn Streaked is as large, 
handsome, and far better in quality than 
Oldenburgh, and not lacking in productive- 
ness. Still later in season are Golden White, 
Prolific Sweeting, Switzer and Longfield, — 
all late fall or early winter sorts with me, — 
handsome, salable, and thrifty and produc- 
tive in tree. Golden White (known best as 
White Russet) is a very choice apple, and is 
already becoming popular as a market fruit 
in Montreal. Antonovka, is still later, — a 
well shaped fruit from a productive tree, — 
and of good quality for nearly every 
use. “Stone Antonovka” is reported to me 
by Mr. John Craig, of the Ottawa, (Can. Ex- 
perimental Farm, as an all-winter form of 
this apple, which I have as an early winter 
sort. These are but a few of many Russian 
apples pretty well known. 
HARDY CHERRIES. 
Our native cherries are hardy in tree, 
< and produce fruit far north. On my farm 
in northern Vermont I have black cherry 
trees fully two feet in diameter that produce 
fruit abundantly. The small bird cherry, 
( PrunusPennsylvanica),\a very abundant, but 
the tree never attains a large size. This is 
the only native cherry of the Atlantic slope, 
upon which the foreign varieties can be 
successfully worked. The choke cherry is 
also abundant, and fully as hardy as the 
so-called “Russian cherries,” — which seem 
simply Morellos selected for hardiness. Al- 
though the bird cherry seems, from their 
working together in propagation, to be 
most closely allied to the foreigh species, I 
believe that we can more profitably labor to 
improve either the black or the choke 
cherry, and I commend them to the atten- 
tion of the young pomologists of our agri- 
cultural colleges. Some of the wild forms 
of the black cherry give quite large fruit, 
and I do not think it would take a young 
experimentor very far into old age to work 
out varieties of high merit from purely na- 
tive stock. Something might be done by 
crossing; but for high latitudes either the 
pure native, or a morello cross, would be 
most likely to lead to good results. Un- 
questionably our native cherries are hardier 
than the hardiest we get from Europe, — the 
Morellos of North Germany and Russia. 
The first of these to attract attention in 
America were the Ostheim seedlings grown 
by German immigrants in Minnesota. The 
true Ostheim is described by Downing, but 
as in the Middle States and southern New 
England the Hearts and Bigarreaus succeed, 
very little attention was given to Morellos, 
— the Dukes having the preference for ex- 
posed situations. None of the Dukes, how- 
ever, are hardy enough for the cold north, 
unless it be the “Griotte” branch. The Gri- 
otte du.Nord seems pretty hardy in north- 
ern Vermont, and the Double Natte stands 
fairly well. The Kentish or Early Rich- 
mond will live, and sometimes grow to a 
considerable size on Lake Memphremagog, 
but very rarely produces fruit. Only once in 
twenty-five years have I seen home grown 
cherries for sale here. 
In my testings, during the past eight 
years, the Russian and North German Mo- 
rellos, or “Amarelles,” have alone shown 
themselves able to endure our climate, and 
fruit freely. I have some twenty sorts, 
mostly received from Professor Budd of the 
Iowa Agricultural College, some of which 
I find mentioned by Downing, (Bouquet 
Amarelle, King’s Amarelle, or Early May, 
and a few others,) but they have never been 
widely distributed, and none of them seem 
to have been tested at the North sufficiently 
to learn their hardiness. It is too soon for 
me to say very much about the relative 
merits of different varieties, but there seems 
to be little cause for doubt that cherries of 
this class will grow and fruit freely a hun- 
dred miles or so further north than any of 
the varieties grown and recommended as 
“hardy” by the nurserymen of lower New 
England and New York.— T. H. Hoskins. 
Fruit in Minnesota. 
Most of the well-known eastern varieties 
of apples have been tried here and found 
greatly wanting; even the popular, prolific, 
handsome Ben Davis was discarded years 
ago as being too tender for the climate. 
While the Baldwin, Yellow Bellflower, Ro- 
man Stem, Geniton, Golden Russet, Winesap 
and a host of others has been repeatedly tried 
and rejected, in many parts of the state 
the Wealthy is largely grown and bears 
early and heavily. 
We can grow crab apples in great quan- 
tities and our markets are well supplied 
with this home grown fruit each season. 
The most generally esteemed are Transcen- 
dent, Orange, Whitney, Early Strawberry, 
Virginia and Hyslop. We have heard from 
eastern and other horticulturists that the 
Russian varieties of apples were poor in fla- 
vor, subject to blight and withal unworthy 
of cultivation. We who have carefully 
studied this subject here, think the conclu- 
sion premature and without due considera- 
tion. Where the old standard varieties of 
apples can be grown, the Russians may not 
be welcomed, but in this state they are 
very promising. Take away from us to-day 
the Russian apples and their seedlings and 
we would have almost nothing left in a well 
tried apple of large size that can be grown 
at a profit. The Duchess of Oldenburgh 
and Tetofsky have been long and favorably 
known here and our markets are liberally 
supplied with them each year. Minnesota 
horticulturists who carefully cultivate the 
Duchess, get very remunerative returns and 
the planting of it is looked upon with favor 
as a paying investment. Among the other 
Russians of promise that have been quite 
extensively tried are the Hibernal, Autumn 
Streaked, Ostrokoff, Glass, White Pigeon, 
Cbarlamoff, Green Streaked, Yellow Anis, 
and we hope and expqct that out of the 
many other varieties now on trial in the 
state and from seedlings of those Russians 
to get varieties better adapted for our use 
than any now known. 
I believe the time is coming when Minne- 
sota will raise enough apples to largely sup- 
ply her own wants. It has been found by 
those having the largest experience that 
our own home grown nursery stock stands 
the vigors of our trying climate much bet- 
ter than eastern and southern grown stock. 
We can not raise the varieties of plums 
of the Domestica type without giving them 
winter protection, neither do varieties orig- 
inating from the Chicasa type do well here, 
but all varieties of the Americana type yield 
abundantly each year and we think there 
is a great future for this hardy class of 
plums. Each year notes the introduction 
of new varieties of merit. In some locali- 
ties the farmers still depend upon the wild 
plums from the woods, but these are grad- 
ually dying out. The best well tried vari- 
ety of this class of plums is the De Soto, 
but the Forest Garden and Weaver are fav- 
orably known, and the Rollingstone, Che- 
ney, and New Ulm are new kinds of great 
promise. These plums are good croppers 
and not much subject to diseases and insect 
pests, although these troubles are on the 
increase. Our winters are cold and often 
severe but free from the slushy times so 
common to other states. — Samuel B. Green 
before the Amer. Asso. of Nurserymen. 
