86. . ANNUAL REPORT. 
habit of the vine to depend upon them, and thus leave the surface 
for culture. 
Let the vineyard be thus commenced, and no injury ite 
from the use of the plow. The plants will be more hardy, produc- 
tive and lasting, and the expense of culture will not be one-quarter 
of that by hand alone, Two plowings alternating with the cultiva- 
tor, together with a little hoeing between plants in the rows, are suf- 
ficient for the season. 
The use of the plow also greatly facilitates the covering for the 
winter. After the plants are pruned and laid down I turn a furrow 
or two on each side of the rows, which about half covers them. 
Nothing could induce me to throw aside the plow in grape culture: 
and return to the drudgery and inefficiency of hand tillage. 
STEWART’S SWEET—HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN, HARDI- 
NESS, &c. 
BY A. STEWART, RICHFIELD, MINN. 
My seedling was raised on the Le Sueur prairie, in 1856, and was 
one of two trees out of about 200,000 settings that was not injured 
by the hard winter of 1857-8. This tree stood in a real sand bed,. 
but came out finely with neither top or root killed. This same sea- 
son I had 60,000 grafted apple trees three years old, completely 
ruined by having the roots killed. The trying time seemed to be 
the 23d of February, 1858, when, after freezing the ground to a great 
depth, a thaw came on with rain at 9 o’clock in the evening, but the 
next morning the mercury was down to 30 degs. below. This great 
change of temperature and throwing off the ground around the root . 
did not have any serious effect on this seedling. 
In the spring of 1866, I removed to Minneapolis with what I had 
of the nursery. The next spring trees generally came out badly, 
many large Siberians having been ruined by killing of the roots. My 
soil was a light sandy loam, near town, and though my loss was very 
great to other varieties, yet my hardy seedling was not injured. 
In regard to bearing qualities, it has not been fully tested. As 
compared to the Transcendent it is not a great bearer, The original 
tree did not come into bearing until eleven years of age, while I have 
known it to commence producing fruit at seven years. The speci- 
mens exhibited at the State Fair of 1874 were from trees of that age. 
A few years will prove the bearing qualities of the apple, as the trees 
become older, and it would not be a real objection if it did not pro- 
duce so much fruit as the Transcendent, which is too often overloaded. 
I have never known it to be winterikilled on its own roots, but on 
common seedlings it has sometimes been somewhat affected in cer- 
tain localities. It is generally considered more hardy than the 
Duchess, which seems to be more hardy than the other Russian va- 
