682 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Oct.  22 
Three  Promising  Russian  Apples. 
Dr.  T.  H.  Hoskins  recently  sent  us  three  Russian 
apples  of  his  own  growing,  pictures  of  which  are 
shown  at  Figs.  207,  208  and  209.  I)r.  H.  sends  the 
following  notes  concerning  these  apples  ;  our  own 
notes  as  to  quality  and  appearances,  following  his  in 
each  case. 
Thk  Grand  Duke  Constantine. — Scions  of  this 
apple,  see  Fig.  207,  were  sent  to  me  about  the  year 
1875  by  Dudley  W.  Adams,  (then  of  Waukon,  Iowa, 
but  now  of  Tangerine,  Florida,)  under  the  name  of 
Riabinouka,  No.  457  of  the  Department  list  of  1870, 
translated  “  Berry  Apple.”  When  it  came  to  bearing 
I  found  it  to  closely  resemble  Alexander;  but  members 
of  the  Montreal  Horticultural  Society  who  grew  the  true 
Alexander  pointed  out  some  differences;  and  Mr.  John 
Craig,  now  at  the  head  of  Pomological  Bureau  of  the 
Dominion  Government,  having  seen  it  ripe  upon  the 
tree,  has  pronounced  it  to  be  the  Grand  Duke  Constan¬ 
tine — which  name  is  not,  I  think,  on  the  Government 
list  of  1870,  and  it  is  probably  one  of  the  Russian 
apples  imported  by  Mr.  Tuttle  of  Wisconsin,  prior  to 
and  corrugated  basin.  Stem  medium  length,  rather 
stout,  in  greenish  russet  cavity.  Flesh  fine  grained, 
greenish  white,  sub-acid,  good  quality. 
Kentucky  Fruit  Gossip. 
The  Rural  wishes  to  know  something  about  the 
grape  Ester.  I  planted  it  with  several  others  of  the 
new  introductions  some  time  ago  and  find  it  a  rather 
slow  grower — it  has  not  fruited  yet.  In  general  appear¬ 
ance  the  vine  resembles  its  parent,  Concord.  Rock- 
wood  (black),  its  twin  sister,  planted  at  the  same 
time,  has  given  me  two  crops.  The  vine  is  a  strong 
grower  and  productive,  bunch  and  berry  only  of  me¬ 
dium  size,  and  not  as  good  in  quality  as  the  Concord, 
I  don’t  see  why  it  should  be  disseminated ;  there  are 
other  better  kinds  that  ripen  at  the  same  time.  Friend 
Bull  in  originating  the  Concord,  erected  a  monument 
to  his  memory  as  lasting  as  the  granite  hills  surround¬ 
ing  him,  but  I  fear  we  shall  never  have  another  va¬ 
riety  comparable  with  the  Concord. 
I  ate  ripe  Green  Mountain  or  Winchell  on  August 
2,  also  Diamond  and  Faith,  all  white,  and  several  black 
rooted  plants,  for,  in  this  progressive  age,  the  old  way 
of  planting  a  vine  and  waiting  three  years  is  too  slow, 
when,  by  grafting,  we  can  fruit  it  the  following  year. 
In  a  late  Rural,  F.  wants  to  know  if  the  Coe’s  Golden 
Drop  plum  ever  produced  a  good  crop.  Yes;  a  neigh¬ 
bor  of  mine  allowed  his  trees  of  this  variety  to  kill 
themselves  by  overbearing;  but  how  did  he  keep  the 
little  turks  away  ?  Having  gone  over  one  day,  my 
olfactory  nerve  was  greeted  with  a  peculiar  odor: 
whew  !  Looking  up,  I  found  he  had  placed  codfish 
around  in  the  crotches  of  the  trees.  Whether  this 
remedy  kept  the  curculio  away  I  can’t  say,  but  the 
plums  were  there.  One  thing  is  certain  :  that  smell 
was  enough  for  me. 
I  agree  with  Mr.  Buckman  in  the  opinion  that  arse- 
nite  sprays  do  not  kill  the  curculio.  I  used  the  formulas 
given  by  The  Rural,  and  sprayed  my  plums  every 
other  day,  yet  every  plum  was  stung — even  Botan  and 
Abundance — Mr.  Fairchild  to  the  contrary.  I  used 
the  spray  strong  enough  to  scorch  the  foliage,  yet  eAery 
plum  was  lost.  There  is  no  remedy  by  spraying. 
Lyndon,  Ky.  G.  R.  wood. 
1870.  Though  closely  resembling  Alexander  to  the 
eye,  I  find  it  better  in  quality,  and  a  longer  keeper. 
It  is  an  excellent  grower  as  I  have  it,  worked  on  the 
limbs  of  Tetofsky;  a  heavy  bearer  in  alternate  years, 
and  a  profitable  market  apple  of  its  season.  I  value 
it  especially  for  baking,  after  removing  the  core  and 
filling  the  cavity  with  sugar.  So  prepared  it  makes  a 
most  delicious  dessert. 
R.  N.-Y. — Fruit  large,  slightly  conical  and  somewhat 
flattened  crosswise,  covered  with  dark  red,  through 
which  green  skin  shows.  Calyx  closed  in  deep  corru¬ 
gated  basin,  stem  slender,  short,  in  deep  cavity 
Flesh  yellowish,  subacid,  rather  insipid. 
The  White  Russet. — This  apple  is  No.  981 
on  the  list  of  the  Agricultural  Bureau  of  the 
United  State  Department  of  the  Interior,  im¬ 
ported  in  1870,  (see  Fig.  268.)  The  tree  is  a 
moderate  grower,  with  spreading  and  even 
slightly  decumbent  growth  while  young ;  the 
bark  a  light  yellowish  brown,  and  the  whole 
aspect  of  the  tree  what  might  be  called  “light 
colored.”  I  have  three  trees  of  it,  eight  or  nine 
years  planted,  at  one  year  old  from  the  root 
graft.  They  have  not  yet  produced  a  full  crop, 
but  are  thrifty,  and  making  a  good  annual 
growth  in  garden  soil.  The  fruit  is  somewhat  j 
oblate,  conical  and  distinctly  angular,  but  other¬ 
wise  quite  regular  and  symmetrical.  The  color 
is  a  palish  yellow,  with  a  little  red,  and  its 
russet  is  confined  to  the  base  and  cavity 
around  the  stem.  It  is  an  early  fall  apple,  ripe 
in  September  in  northern  Vermont.  In  quality 
it  is  a  mild  and  pleasant  acid,  without  distinctive 
flavor,  the  flesh  a  little  yellowish,  mellow,  and 
good  for  eating  fresh  or  for  cooking.  Mr.  Tut¬ 
tle,  of  Baraboo,  Wis.,  who  has  had  this  apple 
longer  than  I,  says  it  is  an  early  and  abundant 
bearer,  and  gives  its  season  as  “  late  fall,”  mean¬ 
ing  by  this,  I  suppose,  that  such  is  its  limit.  We 
cannot  correctly  tell  an  apple’s  season  until  we 
have  it  in  sufficient  quantity  to  handle  it  in  the  com¬ 
mercial  way. 
R.  N.-Y. — Fruit  large,  a  little  conical,  skin  greenish 
yellow  and  rather  curiously  spotted  with  darker 
green,  calyx  closed  in  deep  and  corrugated  basin,  stem 
slender,  medium  length,  in  deep,  narrow  russeted 
cavity.  Flesh  fine  grained,  white  with  greenish  dots, 
acid. 
Basil  the  Great  [?]— It  is  doubtful,  at  present, 
how  the  Russian  name  of  this  apple — “  Wassilli 
Welikui” — ought  to  be  translated.  It  is  No.  971  of 
the  1870  importation  ;  and  on  the  printed  list  issued 
by  the  Department  the  words  above  quoted  are  ren¬ 
dered  “Vasilis  Largest,”  with  no  mark  of  the  posses¬ 
sive  case.  See  Fig.  269.  Mr.  Charles  Gibb,  who  was 
something  of  a  Russian  scholar,  simply  remarks  on 
this  name  that  “the  word  Vasilui  means  Basil’s.” 
But  I  understand  the  word  Basil,  though  used  as  a 
proper  name,  is  in  English  “King,”  or  “Emperor.” 
Now  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  either  “  Basil  the 
Great,”  or  “The  Great  King,”  or  “Emperor,”  is  likely 
to  come  much  nearer  to  the  true  name  of  this  apple 
than  “Vasilis  Largest,”  under  which  it  is  commonly 
grown.  Has  not  The  Rural  a  Russian  scholar  on  its 
staff  to  settle  this  question  ?  The  apple  itself  is  a 
fine,  large,  nearly  globular  fruit,  somewhat  of  the 
Alexander  type,  but  more  nearly  round,  approaching 
oval.  Its  season  is  late  fall,  or  perhaps  early  winter. 
Its  quality  for  eating  fresh  or  cooking,  is  very  nice. 
The  tree  is  an  erect  and  thrifty  grower,  and  will,  I 
think,  prove  productive.  For  eating  out  of  hand  this 
apple  is  much  to  be  preferred  to  Alexander  or  Con¬ 
stantine — indeed  I  feel  quite  sure  that  experts  would 
classify  it  with  the  “very  good”  apples  of  its  season. 
R.  N.-Y. — Fruit  large,  flattened,  narrowing  at  calyx 
kinds.  As  compared  with  Diamond,  I  think  Green 
Mountain  is  overrated  ;  true,  it  is  very  productive,  a 
good,  healthy  grower  and  lasts  some  time;  but  I  ven¬ 
ture  the  assertion  that  it  will  never  become  popular, 
for  the  clusters  are  too  slim  and  the  berries  small,  so 
that  it  is  unattractive ;  neither  is  the  quality  so  good 
as  that  of  the  Diamond,  and  compared  with  black 
sorts  ripe  at  the  same  time,  Jewell  is  greatly  superior. 
Editor  Long  of  American  Gardening,  last  year 
said  Early  Victor  was  “  No  good;  ”  how  I  wish  he 
could  eat  his  fill  of  them  as  they  grow  for  me.  I  am 
sure  his  answer  would  be,  “  The  best  grapes  I  ever 
Grand  Duke  Constantine  Apple.  Fig.  267. 
ate.”  The  Rural  says  ;  “  It  will  never  prove  a  valu¬ 
able  market  variety.”  What  is  the  matter  with  you 
all  ?  I  had  an  acre  of  them  that  were  loaded  to  the 
guards  with  the  most  beautiful  clusters  I  have  ever 
seen,  and  while  they  only  brought  five  cents  per 
pound,  the  illustration,  in  a  late  Rural,  of  a  coopera¬ 
tive  farmer,  reminded  me  forcibly  of  the  way  the 
“  shekels”  came  rolling  in.  Early  Victor  is  a  money 
maker,  find  that  grand  old  “standard  bearer’’  Moore’s 
Early,  gave  us  another  fine  crop.  I  used  to  think 
Delaware  and  Brighton  as  fine  in  quality  as  any 
others,  but  since  fruiting  the  V.  Bourquiniana  and 
V.  Lincecumii,  and  their  crosses,  I  have  found  what 
fine  quality  is.  How  I  pity  Northern  friends,  for 
they  can’t  know  what  fine  quality  in  the  grape  is  un¬ 
til  they  eat  such  grapes  as  the  Carman  and  its  kin¬ 
dred.  The  only  trouble  is  that  one  is  likely  to  foun¬ 
der  when  there  is  an  abundant  supply.  If  I  lived  in 
the  North,  before  I  would  do  without  the  Carman, 
Hermann,  Jaeger  and  others  of  this  class,  I  would 
grow  them  under  glass.  To  the  enterprising  young 
man  who  vrants  to  make  a  home  in  a  few  years,  I  be¬ 
lieve  here  is  a  good  chance.  Let  him  go  to  some 
desirable  south-western  point,  and  grow  these  V. 
Lincecumii  and  Herbemont  crosses  and  ship  them  to 
the  Northern  markets.  Their  quality  is  bound  to  sell 
them,  and  our  Northern  friends  won’t  be  slow  to  buy 
when  once  they  get  a  taste.  Grafts  of  these  varieties 
placed  on  Concord  stocks  this  spring  have  made  a  re¬ 
markable  growth  ;  it  hardly  seems  possible,  but  some 
are  an  inch  in  diameter  and  30  to  60  feet  in  length, 
and  those  grafted  in  the  spring  of  1891  produced  a 
good  crop  this  year.  Do  you  know  the  only  way  to 
properly  grow  Delaware  and  other  weak-growing 
varieties  is  on  some  stronger-growing  kinds? 
Horticultural  Gossip. 
Enterprise  is  commendable  and  zeal  is  a  good 
quality,  but  both  need  tempering  with  judgment  and 
common  sense.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  matter 
of  new  varieties  of  fruits.  The  enthusiastic  horticul¬ 
turist  is  apt  to  have  too  much  enterprise  and  zeal 
and  too  little  of  the  tempering  qualities.  He  gets  to 
have  a  warm  regard  for  his  new  varieties — his  seed¬ 
lings  or  his  hybrids,  his  own  horticultural  children — 
and  he  sends  them  out  without  stopping  to  ask  if  they 
are  needed,  if  they  will  fill  any  unfilled  place  in  the 
list.  What  is  the  use  of  sending  out  a  new 
grape,  simply  because  it  is  new,  when  there  are 
hundreds  of  better  sorts  that  are  just  as  easily 
grown  ?  And  yet  that  is  precisely  what  very 
many  of  our  horticulturists  are  doing.  Take 
a  grape  like  the  Moyer :  what  is  it  good  for  ? 
I  can  conceive  of  no  niche  in  the  garden  that 
could  not  be  better  filled  with  any  one  of  two 
dozen  older  sorts.  Then  why  send  it  out  at  all  ? 
It  is  only  multiplying  names  with  no  corre¬ 
sponding  advantage.  What  we  want  is  better 
fruits — not  simply  new  ones — or  fruits  as  good 
as  those  we  have,  with  a  wider  adaptability  to 
j  variant  soils  and  climates. 
“There  is  no  accounting  for  tastes.”  Not 
long  since  I  had  a  basket  of  grapes  containing 
a  dozen  or  more  varieties,  among  them  Niagara, 
Lindley,  Aminia,  Lady  Washington,  Empire 
State,  Brighton,  Brilliant,  Goethe  and  others. 
A  friend  was  invited  to  sample  them,  and  to 
my  astonishment  preferred  the  Niagaras  to  all 
others.  The  verdict  was  repeated  with  repeated 
tastings.  To  my  taste  it  was  the  least  desir¬ 
able  in  the  lot,  but,  then,  who  can  settle  these 
questions  of  taste  ?  Some  folks  like  kumyss 
and  some  like  beer,  while  to  other  palates  both 
are  very  obnoxious.  It  would  seem  that  grow¬ 
ers  must  grow  such  grapes  as  buyers  like  and 
let  the  matter  of  educating  the  public  taste  take  care 
of  itself. 
Late  peaches  are  generally  deficient  in  the  red 
cheeks,  which  make  the  earlier  fruit  so  attractive. 
Sometimes  the  color  can  be  put  on  the  fruit  by  a  liberal 
application  of  potash  in  some  form,  but  they  are  never 
so  handsome  as  a  Mountain  Rose  in  mid-season.  Now 
here  is  a  field  for  experiment.  The  horticulturist 
who  can  originate  a  variety  of  late  peach  that 
will  be  highly  colored,  will  be  a  benefactor.  The 
vegetable  pathologist  who  will  tell  us  how  to  feed  our 
soils  so  that  our  late  peaches  will  color  finely  will 
also  take  a  high  rank.  We  believe  that  both  ideas 
are  practicable. 
Plum  growing  is  looking  up.  For  many  years  this 
branch  of  agriculture  had  been  practically  abandoned 
in  many  places  where  plums  had  formerly  been 
largely  growTn.  This  was  especially  the  case  along 
the  Hudson  River,  where  the  black  knot  and  curculio 
had  made  the  work  almost  an  impossibility.  Of  late, 
plums  are  again  coming  to  the  front.  Mr.  S.  D.  Wil¬ 
lard,  of  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  is  quite  enthusiastic  in  this 
line  and  has  been  very  successful.  We  hope  to  tell 
our  readers  all  about  his  work  and  that  of  some  of  his 
neighbors,  in  this  department  at  no  very  distant  date. 
The  Japan  plums  are  being  studied  and  some  of  them 
are  very  promising.  They  are  especially  vigorous 
growers  and  begin  bearing  young— two  important 
points  in  their  favor. 
Why  do  not  our  people  generally  eat  more  grapes? 
They  are  to-day,  judged  from  their  nutritive  and 
dietetic  value,  cheaper  than  potatoes  or  any  of  the 
vegetables  in  our  market  and  a  long  way  cheaper  and 
better  than  animal  food.  We  ought  to  have  a  “  Grape 
end.  Skin  greenish-yellow,  splashed  and  striped  with  Rural  readers  who  have  new  seedlings  they  wish  Mission”  established  to  inculcate  among  the  masses 
red  on  sunny  side.  Calyx  open,  in  moderately  deep  me  to  test  for  them  should  send  me  grafts  instead  of  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  grape  eating. 
