132 ANNUAL EEPOKT 



plication to the vines of a solution containing sulphate of copper. 

 Experiments carried on in many parts of the country almost uni- 

 formly report its successful control. There was no opportunity to 

 test it at Minnetonka the past season as the dry weather gave entire 

 exemption from mildew, 



The second necessary condition for a "future of grape culture" 

 at Minnetonka is a market for the product. The close proximity 

 of two cities with nearly half a million mouths to feed affords one 

 of the best local markets in the country > and behind and beyond 

 these cities stretch the plains and prairies of the almost boundless 

 empire of the Northwest. The region about Lake Minnetonka is 

 evidently the outpost of vine culture in this direction, the last 

 vantage ground that can be profitably occupied. It is in point of 

 distance nearest to, in fact on the very border of this immense 

 territory which, though not friendly to the vine, is the home of a 

 great population soon to be numbered by millions. 



It has been roughly estimated that in 1889 two hundred and fifty 

 car loads of grapes, not including shipments from California, were 

 received and handled in the two cities. Assuming 2,500 baskets to 

 the car-load and eight lbs. net per basket, 250 car-loads would 

 amount to 5,000,000 lbs. Assuming that vineyards will bear an 

 average of 10 lbs. per vine, to produce the amount would require 

 500,000 vines, which, as ordinarily planted, would occupy approxi- 

 mately 800 acres. 



Evidently the grapes now grown about the Lake, or in the entire 

 state, cut a very small figure in this great market, and this demand 

 can be depended upon to increase faster than the increase of popu- 

 lation. 



It is, then, plainly not a question whether consumers can be 

 found for the grapes, nor indeed whether they can be grown at 

 Minnetonka in sufficient quantity, but rather, can they be produced 

 at such a cost that when sold in the open market in competition 

 with grapes raised in other states, under a milder climate, they will 

 afford a reasonable profit to the grower! 



This brings up the last, and just now, the most interesting and 

 most important of the three necessary conditions for a "future of 

 grape culture" at Minnetonka. 



The states that furnish grapes in the market, in competition with 

 Minnetonka grapes, are California, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, 

 and western New York. Grapes grown in states south of these 

 named, ripen too early to be competitors. The quantity and price 

 of California grapes have had, in the past, a serious effect on the 

 prices of Minnetonka grapes, but the basis of prices now reached 

 make it improbable that tbey will hereafter be a large factor in 

 regulating prices on account of the high freight charges they nec- 

 essarily incur. Missouri and Illinois put the bulk of their crop of 

 Concords on the market before the Minnetonkas are fairly ripe, 

 and most of those from Iowa are offered a little later. The crop 

 of Ohio appears at about the same time as the home crop, and 

 western New York sends hers a little later, and furnishes the Con- 

 cords that are found in the market till mid-winter. The plenty or 



