Transactions at the Annual Meeting. Ill 



the past season, not even enough to test the truth of Prof. Bur- 

 rill's theory. The tent caterpillar was not as destructive this year 

 as the last, or the year previous. The best thing yet found for 

 their destruction is soap suds ; it kills every time and is a benefit 

 to tbe trees. Cherries were a good crop. Very few try to grow 

 plums, or any but wild ones. The Concord and Delaware grapes, 

 and some of Rogers' Hybrids are bearing fine crops, and there is 

 an increasing interest in grape- culture. 



NINTH DISTRICT. — A. J. PHILIPS, WEST SALEM. 



Counties — La Crosse, Trempealeau, Jackson, Buffalo, and the 

 valleys of the Chippewa and St. Croix. Tbe winter of 1870 and 1880 

 being favorable to fruit growing, there was a large number of fruit 

 trees set in the spring of 1880, and I think they were cared for 

 better than those set previous years, owing to the fact that farmers 

 are beginning to learn that trees will not grow and bear without 

 proper care. Everything being favorable, trees blossomed full, 

 and, cs was the case almost everywhere, bore an abundant crop ; 

 apples especially. The result was the market was glutted. Apples 

 in the fall were brought up the Mississippi river to La Crosse and 

 other points and sold as low as one dollar per barrel, which made 

 the price paid the farmer unusually low. I had a fine crop of 

 Wealthies for young trees, which sold readily at one dollar per 

 bushel when Fameuse sold from sixty to seventy-five cents. 

 Crabs were so plenty that pigs or cattle would hardly eat them, 

 though the No. 20 sold readily at a fair price. I had fifteen 

 bushels o: them, which was as many as the rest of La Crosse 

 county produced, as I set the first trees in this locality. 



From what I can learn, grapes and strawberries were not a very 

 satisfactory crop. Personally 1 am not posted on them. The 

 Wilson, I think, is still the leading strawberry for general planting, 

 and I have heard of no grape that leads the Concord for all pur- 

 poses. Some very fine fruit was exhibited at the La Crosse county 

 fair, samples of Haas, Utter, Wealthy, Golden Russet and Pe- 

 waukee being very fine. I took the premium on Wealthy at Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota state fairs, but was fairly beaten here on a 

 single plate by a townsman of mine to whom I sold trees in 1875 



