56 ANNUAL REPORT. 
grape vines in one year, but on being questioned, admitted that 
his experience with prairie sods was in Illinois. 
Mr. Tibbitts said our Minnesota prairie soil could not be rotted 
in one year, and thought it would require at least two years. 
Mr. Fuller thought that not one man in fifty on the prairie 
would take sufficient care of grape vines to make anything of them 
under ordinary circumstances. Said there must be thorough rot- 
ting and cultivation before planting. He believed it best not to 
talk to frontiersmen about vines and trees, until they had been es- 
tablished at least three years. 
Mr. Harris thought it better for the nurserymen to keep out of 
new countries, thinks they are a damage to the cause when they 
sell trees to be planted in the fresh broken prairie sod. 
m Mr. Underwood defended the nurserymen. He thought the 
farmer had lessons enough in humbugging not to be deceived. If 
not he proposed that nurserymen keep on humbugging the farm- 
ers until they learned something. He said some one would sell 
trees to men on the frontier, and that he would not take his agstns 
out of the field to give place to Ohio and Indiana tree peddlere. 
Mr. Pearce said that if he was moving west, and did not know 
where he was going to locate, he would take vines and fruit trees 
with him, and plant as soon as he located; said that brains would 
make a tree grow anywhere. 
Mr. McHenry cited the fact of having brought to Minn., from 
Ohio, a long list of fruit trees which he had planted on timber 
soil; gave good care, and at the end of three years, had not one of 
his original lot left. 
He attributed this result mainly to improper selection of sorts 
for this climate: 
Mr. Latham reported the loss of nearly all of 500 Concord and 
Delaware grapes in the winters of 1871 and ‘72. Had protected 
well, by covering with earth. 
Mr. Peffer remarked that the winter referred to was a very 
extraordinary one, that many of his vines covered with earth were 
killed, while many, not protected at all, were unharmed. 
The fall was very dry, the winter set in dry, and the ground 
froze up dry. In the spring there was no moisture when the 
ground thawed out, and the vines root killed. Thinks that freez- 
ing dry and thawing dry more injurious than excessive cold. 
Mr. Gibbs remarked that successful grape culture demanded 
deep stirring of the soil. ¢ 
He said that in open field culture, the plow would go deep 
