10 HISTURY OF Jl(JliTICULTLKl<: IN MlNiNKSOTA. 



Cherries are not u i-ayiiiir crop with us, only helps to fill out the variety. The peach, 

 iliiince. persimmon and Spanish chestnuts were entire failures. The black mulberry only 

 partially hardy, others all tender. The butternut, black walnut, and sweet chestnut, I think, 

 will succeed. The grape is a decided success, when covered in due season, best covering 

 swamp hay. 



All small fruits thrive profusely with us. 



We have all exposures and lay of land, found in a timbered region, find but little difference, 

 soil black sandy loam, underlaid with yellow clay, at a depth of from six to thirty inches, 

 land constantly becoming more compact, and the more compact the better for the trees, if 

 set at usual depth. And there is wherein our first losses lay, we did not set deep enough, 

 the roots dried in summer and froze in' winter; but of late set deeper, get a good stand and 

 better growth, most varieties doing w-ell. We mulch in fall before the first freezing, any 

 kind of litter will do, old forest leaves best. To save from mice we bait with strychnine by 

 laving a small bit of board on a good sized chip on the ground, then on that lay anotlier, the 

 second perfectly dry, on it put a little dry corn meal over which sprinkle a little fine powdered 

 strychnine, and over all turn a tight box. or instead, we use old sap troughs; and a little 

 corn-fodder on top, will aid to attract to the bait. To powder the strychnine use a square 

 ended stick to crush the crystals while in the vial. Six or eight baits t J the acre is sufticient, 

 renewed as often as the meal gets damp. 



Peter M. Gideox, 



Excelsior, Minnesota, March 80, 1ST3. 



Ill all the time, from somewhere about 1852 up to 1866, nearly fifteen j^ears, 

 there appears to have been no regularly concerted action between the fruit 

 growers of the State, but each seems to have pursued his own solitary way 

 in seeking to find out the best method to establish fruit culture on a certain 

 basis. The most that was attempted in the way of comparing experiences, 

 and endeavoring to stimulate efforts, appears to have been done by the St. 

 Paul Farmer and Gardner, the first number issued in November, 1860, and 

 edited by Messrs. L. M. Ford and Col. John H. Stevens, an occasional para- 

 graph in the other papers of the State briefly chronicling partial successes 

 here and there amongst the line of skirmishers who led the advance in fruit 

 growing. 



But, of course, this condition of things could not continue. In establish- 

 ing State Fairs, the one held at Fort Snelling in 1860, there was a Class 

 (r., Horticultural Department: the committee appointed to act upon that 

 occasion consisted of Messrs. Alex. Buchanan, K. Chute, Martin McLeod, 

 Mrs. R. Chute, Mrs. A. Buchanan. We have noted already the limited dis- 

 play of fruit on hand, a few pears, crab apples and grapes, being the leading- 

 fruits ; the exhibit supplemented by preserved fruits, in considerable variety, 

 such as strawberries, currants, gooseberries, huckleberries and wild plums. 

 Of course all this must have looked meagre enough; but, although, as we 

 learn by the "newspaper account " of the Fair, the farmers present met on 

 the second evening in the old chapel and had an animated discussion, we can 

 only learn that the growth of wheat was the principal topic under discussion : 

 and that the conclusion reached was that they could groAv twenty-eight bushels 

 to the acre ; and that it depended upon them — rightly enough — to lift the State 

 out of its then " financial embarrassments." 



By the proceedings of the State Agricultural Society at St. Paul, February 

 8th, 1862, we find another trace to indicate a grooving interest in horticultural 

 matters, Messrs. Wm. R. Smith of Hennipin county, D. C. Greenleaf, of Ramsey 

 county, and Geo. B. Wright of Hennipin, having been appointed a committee 



