318 ANNUAL REPORT. 



Best collection, ten varieties, silver medal $25 00 



Best collection, tive varieties for table, silver medal 15 00 



Best collection, five varieties for wine, silver medal 15 00 



Best plate Brighton 5 00 



Best plate Concord 5 00 



Best plate Catawba 5 00 



Best plate Delaware 5 00 



Best plate lona 5 00 



Best plate Lindley 5 00 



Best plate Massasoit 5 00 



Best plate Wilder 5 00 



No other state or territory received any awards of medals on 

 grapes except California. The best thing of all, as I regard it, 

 is our victory over the Catawba grape-growing district of Ohio. 

 About twenty-five pounds of their Catawbas were brought there 

 in splendid condition and entered for competition. They were 

 very good grapes, but Minnesota exhibited better ones and hence 

 received the awarH for best Catawbas. 



Our disi^lay consisted of sixty plates, of eleven varieties, set 

 up in fifteen different competitive combinations for prizes. "We 

 had already lost several varieties on account of the diflBculty of 

 keeping them sound so long after they were harvested, although 

 most of the varieties which we exhibited were nearly perfect in 

 appearance when set up, and were conspicuous as being the 

 largest grape display in the building. The fact that Minnesota 

 should attempt anything of the kind was a surprise to all of the 

 people. All sorts of things were said about us; some could not 

 believe our grapes were grown in the open air; there was some 

 hocus-pocus about it; others that they could have ''beaten" us 

 if they had succeeded in keeping theirs "in condition;" and 

 many other criticisms, usually in a friendly spirit. But the re- 

 mark that two requisites were necessary seems to cover the 

 ground; namely, to have some very superior grapes and to be 

 able to place them on exhibit in good condition, as late as on the 

 fourteenth day of January, over ninety days after they were 

 gathered from the vines. This we succeeded in doing; and duty 

 compels me to say that Mrs. Gould contributed largely toward 

 this success by her good judgment and personal care of this fruit 

 at times when it was not possible for me to attend to it. 



Our grapes remained on exhibition in Horticultural Hall un- 

 til the twentieth of February, and, strange as it may seem, were 

 80 well preserved at that late date as to be considered ornamental 

 and attractive. 



