218 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I have been called upon during the past year to investigate the work of 

 the downy mildew in vineyards around Lake Minnetonka, where the treat- 

 ment of fungicides has given nearly entire immunity from the disease, 

 and this at a cost sufficiently low to permit of its being used on a large 

 scale. By request an investigation has also been made into the adapta- 

 bility for cranberry raising of some large marshes in Otter Tail county. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr, Sampson: I would like to ask if the Professor noticed 

 whether the perfect blossoming varieties of the grapes were 

 able to pollenize in good shape; for instance, the Moore's Early, 

 if he noticed that it was a shy bearer. 



President Underwood: I think Mr. Sampson's idea is with re- 

 gard to the fertility of the blossom. I believe I called atten- 

 tion to the report of one of the eastern horticultural experiment 

 stations — I think it was that at Geneva — in which there was a 

 great deal of importance attached to the fact that most varieties 

 of grapes have not perfect blossoms. It gives the names of 

 ■those varieties, of those kinds that have been tested, and the 

 Moore's Early is one of them. 



Mr. Heideman: I have observed the grape blossoms this 

 spring, and my experience is that the Moore's Early has as 

 perfect a flower and you can get as good fruit from it as you 

 can from the Concord or the Lady. 



Mr. Wedge: It seems to me that it is very clear that the 

 Moore's Early does not fruit as freely as it should. The bunches 

 are perfect; they are good solid bunches — but the difficulty is 

 to get it to form bunches at all. We can overcome that by 

 longer pruning, by allowing it a good deal of wood. 



President Underwood: If Prof. Green, as superintendent 

 of our experiment station, had made careful investigations and 

 experiments in regard to this matter of fertilization of grapes, 

 and had found that they were imperfect in fertilization them- 

 selves, or that it was owing to that lack of fertilization that 

 they had not produced fruit, and had reported it in detail as 

 has been done by the eastern experiment station, we would 

 have a great deal of confidence in that report and would think 

 we ought to look into the matter. The report from the eastern 

 station is very carefully and minutely given, and I think this is 

 a question w^e ought to look into this coming year. 



