Mr. Smith. But the trees are on the west side of the coulie and part way up the side hill?

Mr. Allen. Yes, and they are protected.

Mr. Dartt. The prevailing wind is from the south or the west and not being sheltered from those is not in the most shel

tered spot.

Mr. Allen. No wind can touch them without coming over the bluff and coming down.

Mr. Dartt. The cold air would settle in the lowest ground.

Mr. Latham. The location described by Mr. Allen is undoubtedly one of the best for raising fruit of any kind in this climate. The very lowest ground is unsuitable, no matter whether it is for the growth of the strawberry which lies under the snow or for the grape vine, under a slight covering of earth, or for the life of the apple tree. The summit of a hill is equally bad; but the side hill, part way up, protected from severe winds and where there is the least liability to change in temperature, that is the best place, and the safest and surest for raising fruit. Such a place as the one described by Mr. Allen would undoubtedly be a good one to plant any kind of fruit upon.

Mr. Harris. I visited the grounds of Mr. Wilcox, near La Crosse, on the east side of the river, which are protected by a narrow ravine; the hillsides are quite steep. In the lowest part of the valley he cannot raise apples, but he is raising some of the finest trees of the old varieties I have seen in my travels the past year, and they are pretty well sheltered by the bluff. I found Fameuse trees without any outward blemish upon them, while elsewhere they have been mostly killed. The bluff rises some 150 feet and the sun and wind cannot touch them and they stand better than any place I ever saw.

Mr. Smith. Wouldn't there be naturally a draft of air from the lower Mississippi valley along the sides of that bluff?

Mr. Harris. No doubt of that, but the trees are sheltered, and have the best kind of shelter.

Mr. Pearce. I have studied the apple tree business as well as I could. I have seen trees raised under different circumstances and on different elevations. Out in Pipestone county, one of the highest elevations in the State, on that ridge, the highest in Southern Minnesota, they were raising the finest apples.

Mr. Harris. Murray county is the highest land in the State. Prof. Maginnis. The bluffs rise some six hundred feet above the Mississippi; Barn bluff at Winona I think is just that.

Mr. Pearce. I found the Duchess, Whitney and many other varieties that appeared to be in perfect condition.

Mr. Brand. I suppose they were six or seven years old.

Mr. Pearce. I have observed the same thing at Montevideo, in the Western part of the State, and have been astonished to find the Haas standing well. My experience is that the higher the elevation the better the trees stand. I claim it is not the cold weather that kills our trees and could prove it if I had time. It is the peculiar condition of the sap in the fall. I have known trees to blossom in the fall and that was the condition year before last. I said then the trees were dead and there would be a sharp and woeful howl in the spring; the trees were killed in December. It is not the cold weather that caused the loss but the peculiar condition of the sap. The same thing occurred in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and throughout the Northwest. was going to set an orchard I would select the highest elevation. Prof. Maginnis. In confirmation of what Mr. Pearce has said in favor of high elevations I would say that there is an orchard near Sparta, in the Trempeleau valley, on limestone soil where there are trees that have been in bearing for years, of varieties that have not been grown in any other part of Wisconsin, except along the lake shore. I received this information while attending the farmers' institutes, and the reasons assigned were substantially those given by Mr. Pearce.

Mr. Harris. I have seen the trees on the place spoken of and know they are raising trees that I cannot touch.

Mr. Dartt. Mr. President, the fact that those trees are growing on that high ground indicates that it was a favorable locality; still they may get to bearing, size and then die. There may be low lands in the vicinity, which might be a decided advantage. An elevated plateau, or high level land, is rather against the success of trees, depending on the elevation. If the highest land was the best location for trees you might keep on till you reach the line of snow on the mountains; elevation is good if you don't elevate too much.

Now, the gentleman says that it is not cold that kills; perhaps I would be the proper one to dispute it. [Laughter.] If it was not the cold it seems to me they would not be found dead after we have had an extremely hard winter. You notice that two or three years ago trees down as far as St. Louis were killed out seriously and they reported a cold wave down there when the

mercury was down nearly to forty degrees. It is said by our friend that it was the peculiar condition of the sap in the trees in the fall. I have no doubt but the extreme cold, day after day, freezes our trees dry and when spring opens there isn't life enough left in them to get up a good circulation on the outside. The hardiest varieties start and struggle along and if the next winter is favorable they recover, leaving a black ring in the middle of the tree, making them black-hearted.

Mr. Pearce. How was it some ten or twelve years ago when we had so many trees killed, was it the cold weather that killed them?

Mr. Smith. No. I want to say I have been through three of these winter-killing periods; 1866-7, 1872-3 and 1884-5. To a certain extent brother Dartt is right. But when he says the cold does all the mischief, I would call attention to the fact that each one of these disastrous winters has been preceded by a late fall and continued growth late in the season, so that trees were killed before the very cold weather set in. Again, we have had extreme and continued cold without results. Forty degrees below don't kill an apple tree if in proper condition.

Mr. Latham. Mr. Chairman, I think there is a fact about this that we ought to recognize as individuals and as a society. I have been a member a good many years. We have been through these cold spells, and I have noticed after every one a disposition on the part of members of the society to ascribe the loss of our fruit trees to something besides cold weather; there is always good cause for it. The winter of 1873 was one of these hard spells and at our next annual meeting there was a long discussion, and I remember that some of the members from the southern part of the State thought it was because the ground was so very dry down there; but in this section of the State it was because the ground was so wet. [Laughter.] I was a young member at the time, but I was amused to hear the discussion and all so persistently ignoring the fact that it had been so very cold. If we had no cold weather here we could raise peaches and bananas. The trouble with raising apples and pears in this country is our winters are too cold, and we might as well face that fact. Our trees are not hardy enough for the climate. I can stand the climate with proper clothing, but to wear mosquito netting might cause me to freeze to death; it doesn't follow that I couldn't live elsewhere. We must look for something that will stand the winter, and we might as well face the real situation.

It is the

Mr. Dartt. They say it is not the fall that hurts. sudden stop. [Laughter.] That is about the position taken here. They reason that it is not the hanging that killed a man, but the breaking of the neck, or the stopping of the breath. I think if our trees could escape this extreme cold they would probably be all right.

Mr. Pearce. One word: I dug trees the fall before that winter of 1873 and buried them, in the spring they were all dead. The ground scarcely froze at all during that winter, for potatoes came up in the spring that had been in the ground. over winter. This is a matter of history.

Mr. Smith. I put 3,000 trees in the cellar the sixth of December and they were all dead in the spring.

Mr. Harris. It was root-killing that caused the injury to trees that winter. Northern Spy showed no injury from the winter, but the trees were killed at the root. I know in our ocality we attributed the difficulty to the long-continued and severe drouth.

On motion the meeting adjourned till 7 o'clock.

EVENING SESSION.

TUESDAY, Jan. 18. 1887.

The meeting was called to order by President Elliot. The following committee was named on Revision of Fruit Lists: A. W. Sias, M. Pearce, E. H. S. Dartt.

Mr. Smith. There is one thing I would like to speak of, to throw out a suggestion to members of the Society at this time. I noticed an article in the Iowa Homestead, in the editorial columns, on the subject of protecting farm buildings with windbreaks, recommending evergreens, and, as a temporary expedient, the growing of the Russian Mulberry, to be followed with Scotch Pine, the walnut and other valuable timber. I want to protest against this, for I must say I am not pleased with the Russian Mulberry. I have been well over the State the past year, investigated the timber-culture question. especially as regards the question of shelter belts, and I believe the most valuable for that purpose is the common White Willow. It can be grown on the prairie the best of anything I have found. It is unjust that farmers should be advised to plant out Catalpas

and Russian Mulberries, and trees of that class, which they must pay out their money for without getting any particular benefit, when they can secure the desired shelter belts with little expense by growing the White Willow.

Mr. Sias. I would suppose that a man who would recommend the Russian Mulberry would naturally recommend Scotch Pine next; it is about the poorest thing we have in the line of evergreens for a windbreak. I didn't know that till the twenty-first of August, 1883, when a tornado went through our city, leaving mos of the trees of that kind at an angle of forty-five degrees, while Norway Spruce and most of the native trees stood upright. It has not proper leaf surface like White Pine, which has a fiveleaf cluster. The leaves of a tree have an effect on the root. What is wanted for a windbreak is a tree that will stand firm like the White Pine. We have a native evergreen that I think much of, known as the Gray Pine. Some may be familiar with it, known as Pinus Banksiana.

Prof. Maginnis. Since you have given its botanical name I remember it, and have observed on the map where it grows, and I think there was only one variety that grew further north. I is found on Great Slave Lake, many degrees north of here; it is a cold climate tree.

Mr. Smith. The Jack Pine has a short leaf and is very tough, hard wood.

Mr. Sias. The foliage of the Gray Pine resembles that of Scotch Pine somewhat, but it is a hardier, tougher tree, with better root. It resembles the pine mentioned, but is not the same.

Mr. Pearce was requested to present his paper at this time on grape culture.

GRAPE CULTURE.

By M. Pearce, Minneapolis.

There is no fruit that possesses so many good qualities as the grape, fresh from the vine. It is found in every inhabited part of the earth, where trees or plants will grow, either in a wild or cultivated state. To our native varieties we are indebted for the best varieties we have, such as the Concord, Delaware, Worden, Moore's Early, and others. The handling of the grape vine, necessary to the highest success, is practiced by but few in proportion to the many thousands who are attempting to grow this grand fruit. It is safe to say that in the Northwest not over ten