208 ANNUAL REPORT. 



seven prizes. Of the ten plates of the best, five of each were for 

 the table and wine. The best plates contained the Concord, Del- 

 aware, Catawba, Ionia and Brighton, and best bunch. Ohio 

 gave Minnesota the hardest pull on the Catawba of any state 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. Eev. C. B. Sheldon, of Excelsior, 

 was more than a match with his Catawbas for the Lake Erie dis- 

 trict. A. Bonjour exhibited the best bunch of grapes ; A. W. 

 Latham the best Concords, and F. G. Gould the best Delawares. 

 Mr. Dartt was requested to present his report as delegate to 

 the meeting of the Iowa State Horticultural Society. 



EEPOET OF E. H. S. DARTT, DELEGATE TO IOWA. 



Mr. President and Members : 



I have again been privileged to attend the annual meeting of 

 the Iowa State Horticultural Society. The meeting was well at- 

 tended by substantial, representative men of one of the best and 

 most progressive states in the Union. Delegates were in attend- 

 ance from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kansas, to whom were ex- 

 tended the usual courtesies. 



The last year has been a very disastrous one to the fruit inter- 

 ests of Iowa. The reports of directors from all sections except 

 the southwestern portion show a light crop of fruit of nearly all 

 kinds, varying usually from half a crop to a total failure. These 

 valuable reports also show widespread destruction of trees in 

 orchards, twenty-five to thirty per cent of all orchard trees being 

 killed outright or virtually ruined. It may be regarded as a 

 singular fact that this destruction was greatest in the southeast 

 part of the State, where the mercury went down to about forty 

 degrees below, and seventy -five per cent of orchard trees are re- 

 ported ruined, some entire orchards being destroyed on low 

 lands, while on high lands the injury was proportionally less 

 according to altitude. 



The greater destruction in this section is undoubtedly due to 

 the fact that farther north more attention has been paid to the 

 selection of hardy varieties, l^ursery stock and young orchards 

 have suffered but little, while orchards ten to fifteen years out 

 are injured worse than older trees. The variety that has suffered 

 worst of all is Ben Davis. Son\e will replant this variety on ac- 

 count of its good record in the past, while others will discard it 

 entirely. In the southwestern portion of the State but little in- 

 jury was done; a few trees were killed, the number increasing 

 toward the north. 



