HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IX MINNESOTA. 135 



He could not accept old country notions in rei^ard to grape culture, and 

 although the Delaware did not stand the hot sun so well on account of the 

 thinness of its leaves, it was an enormous bearer and would always bring a 

 good price. To raise good grapes requires constant culture until the fall. 

 Indeed, they could not be grown here for less than twenty cents per pound. 

 He can grow strawberries at ten cents per quart as well as grapes at twenty 

 per pound, or wheat at eighty cents per bushel. Grapes require great skill 

 in culture ; even professionals spoil grapes. Old country laborers would do 

 their oAvn ways, and he would not advise anybody to plant as a beginning, 

 more than a few vines. But he would advise all who had a rod of ground 

 only, to plant a few vines at least. His soil was on the bluffs of the Missis- 

 sippi, and a clay soil on lime rock was to be preferred to any other. The 

 ground should be worked eighteen inches deep. It was a laborious under- 

 taking, but they would last years after we were gone. The grape needed 

 deep drainage. If planted shallow they might, the first year, do well, but in 

 a dry spell they would drop their fruit. In reply to a question put by Col. 

 Stevens, he said it took fifteen pounds of grapes to make a gallon of wine, 

 and wine could be produced more cheaply in a southern clime : but if we 

 wanted good fruit and fresh, we must grow grapes here. They were paying 

 eighty to ninety cents for California grapes, which, it was true, Avere larger, 

 but they were not better than ours. He did not think fniit growing a money 

 making business, but then a man must take pleasure in his work. He had 

 seen blueberries sell here in St. Paul for twenty cents per quart, when you 

 could not get that for raspberries, and he had shipped abroad more grapes 

 than he had sold here. St. Paul really took little interest in these matters. 

 They would not come into this hall to look into things for themselves, when 

 they could come and look on for nothing: but they would stop him on the 

 street to inquire how they could grow grapes. 



Mr. Harris endorsed Mr. Smith's views. He. too. had seen wild fruits, 

 blueberries, selling for fifteen cents, when grapes would not bring that price. 

 He did not believe in the Delaware, however, except on a clay soil, and he 

 could not recommend it generally to the people. He thought that for Minne- 

 sota the Concord grape was the best of the two. He therefon-. disagreed 

 with Mr. Smith on that point, and people from Iowa and other States took 

 the same view in relation to the matter. The crab was the forennnier of all 

 fruits here, and we should, therefore, be grateful to it. It prompted efforts 

 in all branches of fruit culture besides. He believed the Transcendent Crah 

 was the leading fruit amongst apples, and he thought the same of the Concoi-d 

 amongst grapes. 



Mr. Smith said he merely spoke for himself in preferring the Delaware. 

 He could name other varieties he liked, but he put the Delaware at the head. 



Col. Stevens called on Mr. Gould, of Excelsior, who had been successful 

 with grapes, to give his experience as to their culture, and Mr. Gould said 

 that he agreed with Mr. Smith as to the value and success of the Delaware 

 as a popular grape. He, however, thought more of the lona, as the flavor 

 was more spicy. The Delaware had proved hardy with him, and he had been 



