310 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



awkward complication of the grass knot, the endless pinching, the anxiety 

 01 about how much foliage to take, how mucla to leave; whore to leave 

 fruit branches for the next year, and how many of the sweet scented 

 blossoms to cast away, making room for others to mature. Our hearts were 

 altogether too tender on this last point, and, while we rejoiced at the 

 large results of the year's labor, we did not realize that we had laid the 

 foundation for future disease and loss. "When winter closed in on us 

 we had laid our vines away, with no desire to return to the city's busy 

 whirl, since we had built very comfortable winter quarters for ourselves 

 and the little stock we possessed. 



During the winter we were constantly making preparations for increas- 

 ing our varieties of small fruits. "We had plenty of grapes, and when 

 spring came added quite a number of berries to our plantation. These, of 

 course, made more work and workmen necessary, but we started out with 

 a great deal of assurance. Wiser heads than ours hinted at queer little 

 formations on branches of certain wild trees, and carried uncertain 

 airs about the outcome, since the analysis developed a caterpillar known 

 to be very destructive in other parts: but with the assistance of a neigh- 

 bor we barricaded ourselves with a barrel sprayer which, in conjunction 

 with certain compounds recommended by the Government School of 

 Agriculture, was insured to kill every living thing within its reach. It 

 requires nc stretch of memory to go back to the time when the enemy 

 burst upon us, not in weak numbers which could be easily cut off and so 

 leave no chance of progeny, but with a force so overwhelming, so far 

 reaching, so near reaching, that the hairy, squirming, crawly, creeping 

 things literally took possession of us and ours. Not a plant of any kind 

 escaped. Our gardens were taken by storm: from our apple trees waved 

 their fllmy banners: while about our houses, clothing and beds, they com- 

 pared very favorably with the frogs of Egypt. Every man, woman and 

 child, who owned a home was on the defensive, while campers and sum- 

 mer visitors fled to the city for safety. 



Added to these, other pests made their appearance. Cut worms kept 

 onion and cabbage beds clean: a small green insect covered the plum 

 trees: currant worms on the currant bushes: an almost imperceptible be- 

 ginning of mildew on the Delaware, and later on, little spots on the Con- 

 cord grapes: and we felt we were in for it. The sprayer was rigged and 

 manned and went forth to battle, and day after day, as I looked out 

 from the windows of the sick room where I was then keeping watch, I 

 could see a man skillfully guiding a two-horse wagon upon which was the 

 barrel sprayer up and down the lines of grapes, while two others followed 

 drenching the vines on either side from a hose, and a fourth played up 

 and down upon a pump handle, thus supplying the warranted fluid. It 

 was an imposing array, I assure you. and left its impress of blue on every 

 vine, bush and tree with which it came in contact. The ground was 

 blue, the wagon blue, and a blue line marked its path to the next neigh- 

 bor. I do not yet know if a smaller quantity of material and less marked 

 efforts would have answered the purpose at tba: time, but the treatment 

 was effective to a great extent. The caterpillars, I think, stayed their 

 time out, but the seasoning of their food injured their appetites and 

 caused many deaths; but many wove their cocoons and prepared for an- 

 other summer's campaign. The insects on the plum trees flourished upon 



