142 ANNUAL REPORT 



time with a written report. Perhaps at no time, in the history 

 grape growing in this state, have grapes been so free from in- 

 sects in Northern Minnesota as they have this year. In the very 

 early spring there was a few cases of the presence of the leaf 

 beetle, but spring came on a little too fast for them, aDd the injury 

 done was virtually nothing. About the time the vines came into 

 blossom, which was late in June, we had two or three wet days with 

 fog, and mildew started in some few cases upon the wild grape 

 vines. In my vineyard I discovered only one vine affected by this 

 mildew that is supposed to cause the grape rot later. At Browns- 

 ville, Minnesota, I saw some vineyards that had here and there a 

 single vine affected but the weather came off favorable and it 

 spread no further. 



Upon my place, I had agreed, with the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, to test some of their remedies and I made one application 

 of the Bordeaux mixture, and afterwards made another application 

 upon a small portion of the vineyard. As we had no rains that 

 mixture remained upon the foliage and upon the fruit five or six 

 weeks, when I made a second application, I couldn't see that there 

 was any damage done to the fruit. I didn't see a single blossom in 

 the grape that was affected by black rot, or gray rot either, so there 

 was no benefit derived from the application this year. 



Their was one insect that I saw in one vineyard in the town of 

 Brownsville which was doing considerable injury. It seems to 

 be the grape curculio. A very small grub hatches out from the egg 

 that is deposited there and matures itself in the grape, and the 

 berries thus affected drop off before the season of ripening, so when 

 you are purchasing grapes you will know you are not buying wormy 

 ones. I suppose the remedy for that insect, would be spraying with 

 arsenical preparations or kerosene emulsions. 



It is happy for us in Minnesota, that the alarm starting years ago 

 by the almost universal presence of mildew throughout the state, 

 and not only black rot but some other rot, did not continue all 

 through the last year. If it had increased as such things ordinarily 

 do.grape growing would require a great deal more skill and attention 

 than it has in the past. 



REPORT BY MR. LATHUM. 



I have not prepared any report as it seems to me there is lit- 

 tle to report. We have been entirely exempt from mil-dew, or 

 any other grape disease this year. The only insect that has 

 ever done any harm here, is the little blue beetle, and there 

 has never been any wholesale injury here from that cause. The 

 year before last, we had enough mildew to make up for the 

 mildew we didn't have last year. Of course the character of the 

 season of 1888 was to blame largely for that. It was first wet 

 weather, and then hot sunshine, and then another rain storm. The 

 air was full of moisture and everything was favorable to mildew. 

 It was a new thing to us, and I tried many experiments which I 



