Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-01-31
Mr.. Gibb on Russian Fruits.

The following notes are from Mr.. Charles
Gibb of Abbottsford, P. O., who, with Pro.
fessor Budd of the Iowa Agricultural Col
lege, has, the past season, been on pomo-
logical tour through European Russia in
the interest of fruit-growing in the cold
north. We condense from the Montreal
journal of agriculture; ain the govern
ment of Vladimir there are districts where
the chief commercial industry is cherry cul-
ture The Vladimir cherry is usually
rather large in size, and, when fully ripe,
nearly black, and almost sweet. In quail
ity it is very much better than our Kentish.
Many proprietors have ten thousand trees,
or rather bushes, of it and entire cars, and
even at times entire trains, of this cherry
leave for different localities. The climate
of Vladimir is as cold as that of Moscow,
and such cherry should be imported into
this province. At Mini Novgorod, at the
great fair, we found the fruits of the Volga
in quantity and great variety; and here and
in Kazan we began, as far as we could, sys-
tematic study Of them. When our object
was properly understood, both the Russian
peasant fruitgrower and the Tartar vendor
took an interest in our work, and many
little fruit meeting, debating some point of
nomenclature, was held among these, our
fellow horticulturists. On the west bank
of the Volga and to the south of Kezan,
seven hundred miles north of the city of
Montreal there are twelve villages where
apples are grown, sometimes to the value of
$4,000, for the markets of Mini and
Kszan. In this, the coldest orchard
region in the world, we find apples borne
upon bushes rather than trees, grown
in clumps of two or three together, and
these clumps twelve feet apart each way.
We saw these orchards in heavy bearing,
yet the thermometer went down to forty de-
grees last winter. In 1877, for a day and ?
half, the thermometer stood at fifty-eight
degrees below zero, Fahr and yet these
trees show no signs of having been injured
at that time. They are slow, crooked grow
ers, but they bear, young and abundantly,
fruit of fair size and of really fine quality,
that keeps at least till mid-winter. One
would expect this apple tree to be fair
success on Pembina Mountain, in Manitoba.
At Simbirsk latitude fifty-four degrees)
where it is as cold as Quebec, wo found
the same apples grew in quantity, and also
many thousand pear trees. Several varie-
ties of the Bergamot, and of other types,
are sweet, free from astringency, and worthy
of introduction. The plum in the northern
regions, here, is a new race-from Moscow
to Kazan and southwards, it is grown to a
fair extent, and is plentiful in the markets
in all the towns. The improved varieties
of the wild plum of the north western states
is probably the best plum for colder Sec
tions of Canada. Yet these Russian plum
bushes are heavy bearers. Some are red,
some white, but mostly blue, and the best
of them are very nearly as good in quality
as Lombard, if not equal. We continued
our journey down the Volgs, visiting the
orchards at several of the towns until we
came to Seratov, in latitude fifty-one and
one-half degrees, where we found an Or
chard of twelve thousand trees which had
lately employed three hundred pickers and
eighty-fve packers, and had sent what is
equal to one thousand tons of apples to the
Moscow market. Here, we find an orchard
of five thousand pear trees, and yet there
are times when the mercury becomes solid.
AS we turn westward into central Russia
we find new varieties of the apple. The
Annis, grown probably for hundreds OF
years on the Volga from Seratov to Kazan,
is unknown at Voronesh, and the Anton
oyka takes its place. The best varieties ol
the Russian frnits, fortunately, have beer
included in the collections sent from Mos
COW to the agricultural college at Ames
Iowa. have said enough to show that the
area of the apple, pear, cherry and plum
can be increased northwards in our country
very materially"