230 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GRAPES. 



So far, I have not had any success in grape growing. One year the 

 grasshoppers trimmed them for me. They started to grow again and an 

 early frost killed the yet unripe wood to the ground. Next spnug they 

 were backward in growing, and again the wood was killed in the fall, and 

 so on, until this spring, when only some 15 grew of 800; 13 varieties in all. 

 Here, where I am now, I have a fine location for grapes, and I will try 

 them again as soon as I have money enough in my pocket. Mr. E. Munz, 

 of Elizabeth, some four miles from here, received some grape vines from 

 the state experiment station, St. Anthony Park, some three or four years 

 ago, which he planted in a wheat field, where they are still growing. He 

 never worked them any, only covered them in winter, and tied them to 

 stakes in spring. They were never pruned. Last fall I saw them; the 

 weeds were taller than the stakes, but several varieties bore a remarkable 

 crop for the condition they were in. 



They were the first Otter Tail county grapes I ever saw or tasted, and I 

 think in a favorable location and under thorough cultivation, the earlier 

 varieties can be grown here with success. 



CHERRIES. 



All the cherries went over the garden wall to the trash pile except two 

 Ostheim; and for all I know, they too, may soon follow the rest. As yet 

 they are looking tip-top, but who can tell what they will be in three or 

 four years? 



Let me call your attention to the native sand cherry. I think this 

 shrub should receive more notice by our horticulturalists than it does- 

 I have had quite an experience in raising them from seed; and I know 

 that the offspring of the same plant is very variable. Seedlings from the 

 same plant will not bear the same kind of fruit. Some will be of good 

 flavor, sweet and juicy; some will be hard and bitter; some will be 

 globular in shape, and some oval. In some the pit is larger, in some 

 smaller; and some grow more upright than others; and I think if 

 plants from different localities and soils were planted together we might 

 be able to originate a variety of cherries that would supply our wants. 

 Working on this line I intended to get some plants of a yellow variety 

 frern South Dakota, but I was so busy at the planting time this fall that 

 I forgot to send for them. 



PLUMS. 



I have only one variety of native plums, except what I dug up in the 

 woods. I do not know the name of it. It seems to do well here. 1 have 

 had two crops off them. The fruit is large, and of better quality than 

 any 1 know of around here. Color, yellow, with a few red marks on one 

 side. It ripens rather late for this section, and I am afraid it will be of- 

 ten frosted before it comes to maturity. 



I think it is not necessary to state that other plums, or prunes, than the 

 native, will not stand the winter here. I presume most of you knew that 

 long before I did. 



Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is about all I know of small fruit grow- 

 ing; and 1 think, with good care, and judgment, anybody can grow most, 

 if not all, the hardier varieties of small fruits, here in any locality. Th 

 reason why not more efforts are made here, to grow fruits, is; first, to 

 much post-auger-fence-corner planting; second, the weeds grow too high in 



