> 
50 ANNUAL REPORT. 
showed discoloration in December, 1879. His location was shel- 
tered, and in what is known as the big woods. 
WEDNESDAY MORNING. 
Meeting called to order at ten o'clock. 
After the usual opening exercises Mr. John S. Harris read a pa- 
per on 
GRAPE CULTURE FOR MINNESOTA. 
From the very earliest ages of the world the grape has been a highly es- 
teemed fruit. From the time when Noah left the Ark, planted a vineyard and 
drank of the wine down to the present, its cultivation has received encourage- 
ment from nearly all civilized nations. The early settlers of America, remem- 
bering the delicious fruit and the exhilerating beverage of the old world, intro- 
duced the European vine (vitis vinefere) at an early day, but met with very in- 
different success with it, and since then repeated attempts have been made to 
Americanize it, but have all alike proved futile. Next, attention was turned to 
the cultivation and improvement of some of the native species that were found 
luxurating in almost every state from Maine to Louisiana, and as they showed 
themselves susceptible of improvement they continued to grow into favor and 
receive attention until the originating of a few varieties like the Concord, Iona 
and others, culminating in the contagious grape fever which swept over our 
land a few years since. 
The interest may have weakened a little after the fever had burned itself out 
but at no period in the history of its cultivation in this country has so healthy an 
interest existed as at the present. In the older states thousands of acres ot 
vineyard have been planted until the aggregate 1s up into the millions and the 
fruit is beginning to be looked upon as next in value as a human food and arti- 
cle of commerce to the apple, which is and probably always will be the staple 
fruit of the middle and northern United States. Until quite recently it was 
hardly expected that vine growing would ever become an industry in Minnesota, 
but such marked success attended the efforts of Smith, Knapheide and a few 
other of the old pioneers in fruit growing, as to stimulate others to give it a trial 
and thanks to the success and the influence of the State Horticultural Society, 
scores of vineyards have been planted within the past eight or ten years, and 
are producing fruit of great excellence for the market and home consumption, 
and as a result hundreds of our people are about to engage in the extensive cul- 
tivation of the grape. Not every man will make a success of it, more than they 
do of any other branch of horticulture. Some will not make a judicious selection 
of soil, location and varieties and others will not bring to bear upon it the requi. 
site skill and attention, but grape growing is a very simple science, and with 
early, hardy varieties, suitable soil, favorable locality anda reasonable amount 
