50 ANNUAL KEPORT. 



RASPBERRIES. 



The interest in the growing of this valnable fruit has declined 

 considerably in the last three or four years. Old plantations 

 have run out and but few new ones are being made, and the 

 markets are largely supplied from the hedge-rows and by impor- 

 tations. Wherever cared for, the Doolittle Black Cap was fine 

 and productive. The Turner is most extensively cultivated of 

 the red, and produced a bountiful crop of rather small berries. 

 The Cuthbert is promising well, and, should it prove hardy 

 enough, will supersede other varieties. The fruit is of large 

 size, carries well, and is inferior only to the Turner in flavor. 



Blackberries gave promise of a fine crop up to the middle of 

 July, when, except where winter protection had been given, and 

 upon northern slopes where the snow laid deep, the heft of the 

 crop blighted and dried up — the probable cause, loss of vitality 

 in the fruiting canes from the severe cold of last winter. It is 

 evident that to be sure of a good crop every year some protec- 

 tion must be given our most hardy varieties. 



GRAPES. 



Grapes in this district and in most j)arts of the State were an 

 extraordinary crop, except in a few instances where they were 

 affected with mildew or rot. There were no killing frosts in May 

 to cut back the young growth, and no heavy storms of rain while 

 they were in blossom, to destroy the pollen and prevent the set 

 ting of fruit, and the frosts held off so late in the fall that the 

 entire crop matured. The yield was good, the berries and clus- 

 ters large, and the quality superior. 



The leading variety in cultivation has been the Concord; next 

 to that stands the Delaware. The Wordeu, upon my place, was 

 better than any other variety, and three or four days earlier 

 than the Concord. The Janesville is valuable as an early grape, 

 and very good if allowed to hang until thoroughly ripe. There 

 is some cause for alarm on account of the appearance of the rot 

 to which I have alluded. Its appearance was first noted last fall, 

 and as we have heretofore been exempt from it I have never 

 given the subject any attention, and do not understand the cause 

 of the malady or any remedy for it. My attention was first 

 called to it by a paragraph in a La Crosse paper stating that the 

 Concord grapes in the vineyard of N. Hintgen had been stung 



