266 ANNUAL REPOET. 



The recent devastation of our orchards of hardy trees, from which so 

 much was hoped, is a prominent cause of the present general interest 

 developing on this subject. While the Wealthy and Duchess and 

 other iron-clad trees and plants have succumbed to the fierce, cold 

 winds of January, the vine, snugly tucked away in its winter bed, has 

 come forth year after year, bearing its annual and certain crop of most 

 luscious and wholesome fruit. And while the severity of our winters 

 have forced us to lay them under half a foot of earth and a coverlid of 

 mulch, this extra care required has in itself been the means of our pro- 

 ducing the largest berries and the handsomest and most perfect 

 bunches known in the culture of American vines. 



The vine grower in this climate has a large list to draw from, limited 

 almost solely by the time of the first severe frost in the locality where 

 he intends to plant. 



The very earliest ripening grapes, like Moore's Early, Lady, and 

 Early Victor, can be grown with a reasonable assurance of success in 

 nearly every garden in the State, while the varieties of equal or great- 

 er value can be planted in more favorable localities; and in very favor- 

 able locations, where the soil is a clay loam with much fine limestone, 

 elevations high and sheltered, well protected on the north and west by 

 large bodies of water, varieties ripening as late as the 1st of October 

 can be grown year after year with success. Even the late ripening 

 Catawba can be perfected to such a degree as to snatch the laurels in 

 competition with that variety grown in its native home. 



In many localities in our State the vine is being cultivated success- 

 fully, and the planter may confidently expect to harvest year after year 

 fine crops of fruit. 



Of the locations especially favorable which I have visited, or with 

 which I am well acquainted by report, there is none that surpasses the 

 high, rolling and well timbered land on the south and east shores of 

 our beautiful Lake Minnetonka. The culture of the vine here is rap- 

 idly becoming an industry, and it will soon be difficult to get out of 

 sight of a vineyard along six cr eight miles of this shore. The north 

 and west shores and the islands and point of this lake also have vine- 

 yards which are doing well. 



The number of bearing vines about Lake Minnetonka has been 

 largely over-estimated, and I do not believe the number of full bearing 

 vines to exceed 10,000, while, including the unusually large plantings 

 of last spring, the whole number of vines now planted may be in the 

 neighborhood of 30,000. The crop the past year from these vines was, 

 doubtless, not to exceed 50,000 pounds. 



