100 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
apples, that had been hoped for, and for which our nurserymen have made 
countless efforts and sacrifices from an early period. The expedient so 
strongly advocated by many of our early nurserymen of importing hardy 
varieties from Russia, appears to have been fairly tried, and to have failed 
of accomplishing the results anticipated. We are still largely dependent 
for our winter fruit upon the older fruit growing states, and the demand 
seems to have kept pace with the growth of our population. From a re- 
port recently published, I gather that Minneapolis alone*furnished a mar- 
ket in 1891 for 196,775 barrels of apples, 446,743 baskets of grapes, and 80,- 
611 cases of strawberries, not to mention the other varieties of small 
fruits. Never should the fruit growers of Minnesota lay by their armor 
till the demand for imported fruit has been met by a full supply from our 
orchards, vineyards and gardens. New varieties will be discovered, and 
much knowledge gained as to the special adaptation of different localities 
for different fruits. As an illustration of the change already effected in 
the ideas of our fruit growers as to the possibilities of fruit cultivation, L 
recall the fact that Truman M.Smith,who ranked among the early veterans 
as about the best authority on grape culture in the state, held that grapes 
could not be profitably grown for less than twenty cents a pound, while 
D. W. Humphrey, of Faribault, who was accounted a successful fruit 
grower, at about the same period expressed the opinion that home grown 
strawberries could not be raised for less than twenty cents a quart. 
Within the recollection of the writer, the only grapes marketed in the 
vineyard district on the south shore of Lake Erie were grown by one man 
in the township of Portland, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., who was accustomed 
annually to peddle, in the nearest villages, a few bushels of grapes and 
peaches grownin his nursery. Hissuccess finally stimulated his neighbors 
to effort in the sameline. They groped blindly for atime, for there were 
many false impressions to overcome, the prevailing ideas of grape culture 
having been drawn from European sources. The scientists recommended 
the trenching of the soil two feet in depth and filling it with old bones, : 
manure, scraps from the tan yard and any other rubbish that could be q 
- made into a compost, involving a very large expense. After many costly | 
failures, the experimenters gathered from the teaching of experience . 
that any land that was sufficiently rich to grow good corn could, with no i 
greater labor in cultivation, be made to produce good grapes, and now a 
thousand car loads of the choicest Concords, Delawares and Catawbas are 
annually sent to market from that region at a price that nets the grower 
from one to three cents a pound, and at which they still regard it the 
most profitable crop that they can raise. 
Looking back at the struggles and sacrifices of the pioneer horticul- 
turists in Minnesota, we cannot but be impressed with their hope, cour- 
age and persistent endurance. They had that quality of faith that is said 
to remove mountains. Thefarmer loses a field of grain by blight, mildew 
or drought; he is cast down, but not discouraged, for the crop has in- 
volved but the labor of a few months and within another year he may re- 
trieve the disaster. But how is it with the nurseryman? He expends 
years of labor in nursing his crop of seedlings and root-grafted trees till 
perhaps they begin to come into bearing, and with assured confidence in ° 
the success of‘his methods he shouts, ‘‘Kureka.” Then comes a marked 
change in the season. <A winter of exceeding severity, like that of 1884-5, — 
¢ 
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