nearly so, at the base; top, oval or round. The forcing bud is flat, or medium size, with a slightly peaked or pointed top. The wood bud is small, flat at the base and pointed. Fruit buds,

FIG. 2.

when they start in the spring, will blossom at each joint from the first to the fourth or fifth. A forcing bud will never blossom unless it is forced to do so by pinching the top of the vine when fifteen or twenty inches long. A wood bud can never be forced into fruiting, to any advantage. There is from two to three weeks difference in the time of ripening the grapes from the two buds first mentioned. Fully nine-tenths of the grape growers of this country are using forcing buds for fruiting, and that is the reason so many grapes never ripen. It is of the utmost importance that grape growers should be familiar with grape buds, for on this everything depends. Whatever system of trimming you may practice, remove all buds except the fruiting ones, and in no case should these exceed twelve to any root. The number of fruit buds must be regulated by the age and vigor of the vine; young vines are often ruined by overbearing. Fig. 2 represents Fig. 1 when two years old, laid down ready to be covered for winter protection. Fig. 3 represents the same wine, the next fall, loaded with fruit.

The trellis is of three No. 12 white wires, on posts three and a half feet high, the bottom wire twelve inches from the ground, the second midway between the foot and the top. The horizontal vine in Fig. 3 is Fig. 2 in its subsequent position on the

trellis, fastened to the lower wire, in the spring. The buds should all swell at the same time; this result is accomplished by elevating or lowering the vine at the top end; if the buds are making too much growth at the end of the vine, drop it down a little; if it is too slow elevate it; by so doing all the buds can be made to start together; this must be carefully attended to at the commencement of growth. When growth commences it will be very rapid, blossoms and clusters will appear at each joint as shown in the cut; tie the growing canes to the wires; when they reach the top wire turn them down between the fruiting canes as shown in Fig. 3. Allow nothing to grow but the fruiting canes and two leaves to each lateral. The long vine on the left is for the next year's fruiting; allow it to make a growth of six or seven feet, then pinch off and hold all the laterals to two leaves. In the fall remove the bearing arm at the point indicated by the lower dart. The new vine will be the next year's fruiting arm; this is known as the "renewal system," each year growing a fruiting arm or vine.

If you are growing from forcing buds, which is too often the case, pinch the top of each cane above the third joint; also the laterals beyond two leaves; keep off all sprouts that may ap pear; renew the pinching as new growth appears, and in no case allowthe vines to go beyond the top wire. The grapes will be later in ripening, at least two weeks or more, than those from fruit buds.

The following are the most popular varieties for this region: Concord, Delaware, Worden, Moore's Early and Cottage. The last two named are large and good, fifteen or twenty days earlier than the Concord.

Grapes should be well cultivated till the first of August; after that pull out the weeds and they will do much better then if cultivated late. Trim in the fall as soon as growth ceases; this will hasten the ripening of the grapes the next year. Cover the vines as late in the fall as possible, as before directed. Uncover as soon as danger of freezing is over.

I am aware that my mode of handling grapevines differs from most growers in this region, but it is not new, has been fully tested by myself and other parties, and has been found to be far ahead of any other system. The principal advantages of this system are: early ripening, larger quantity and less labor.

DISCUSSION.

Mr. Harris. I would like to ask how many years you have been practicing your system of pruning?

Mr. Pearce. All my life; it is the old system and it has always been followed.

Mr. Brand. Would you advise propagating vines from cuttings treated in the manner you describe?

Mr. Pearce. I would say that you can take cuttings if you wish and grow them so that they will produce a crop of grapes in three years. You can grow fruit the next year even if desired. President Elliot. That is not generally considered good policy. Mr. Pearce. I would cut the vine so as to leave three eyes and no more. You can take some fifty of these and tie them together after taking them off in the fall. Make an excavation, putting the top ends down, covering with three inches of earth, then covering with two or three loads of manure; this will create an artificial heat. In the spring the buds will be calloused. Set in strong ground and if they are fruit buds they will grow. It is not policy if you are growing vines.

Mr. Harris. Care must be used not to put on too much manure or the vines will rot, and I think six inches of earth better than three for a covering. The object of the manure is to keep the frost out.

Mr. Pearce.

We tried the process described, a year ago and.

were very successful.

President Elliot then read his annual address.

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS.

Members of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, Ladies and Gentlemen:

When I undertake to bend my mind from business cares and try to express in a clear and definite form an address worthy of the cause we represent, I can but wish that this task had fallen to the lot of some other member, better qualified to consider the many questions of interest that are to come before us. And when I read the many excellent annual addresses that have been given by my predecessors, I feel that your selection has been unwise. With this introductory, we come directly to our subject for this evening, with reference to a few points, as Shakspeare would say, "to leave no rules as blotches in the work" of horticulture.

HORTICULTURE.

What does it mean? Webster says, gardening; "The art of cultivating the garden." Those who follow its pursuits can be truly counted benefactors of mankind. It is an art worthy of the most intelligent research, capable of affording great pleasure to its devotees, and success can only be attained in it by constant care and vigilance. In this, as in other pursuits, only the cautious, calculating, painstaking investigator will become eminently successful in a climate like ours. To quote from an essay by G. W. Lawton, of Michigan: "No weariness in fruit growing is tolerated in mind or body if one would succeed; activity in both are prerequisites."

Passable crops may be raised by those not noted for great industry, but to make a good profitable business it must be conducted on business and scientific principles. The success we have attained has been by those who have chosen their location for operation with care, given thought to the preparation of their grounds, made judicious selections of varieties, planted intelligently and given proper protection against drouths, by cultivation, or mulching. The ambition and enthusiasm of one loving his profession will overcome all obstacles and make success of what would otherwise prove a failure. In some of its departments experiments can be finished in a few weeks or months; in others it is a life work, and in a few it requires the energy and patient toil of successive generations. If it is truly said that "time will accomplish all things;" we can hope and work on, believing that we may yet be able to produce hardy fruits for this vast area of country that has hitherto proved so uninviting to horticulturists.

To those not personally acquainted with experimenting in horticulture it seems an easy thing to grow fine fruits, flowers and vegetables; but the experience of those who have devoted the best part of their lives to this health-giving employment proves it otherwise.

When I look around upon these horticulturists with heads whitening with age, and think what results they might have attained had they devoted themselves as assiduously to other pursuits; what opportunities they have lost, what deprivations their families have undergone; when with only discouragements, losses, blighted hopes, failures in the past and utter ruin staring them in the face, ofttimes without a cent in their pockets, home

devoid of every comfort, wife shoeless and children crying for bread, they have worked on with devotion worthy better results. Think you politicians, lawyers, doctors, mechanics, artisans, ministers of the gospel, that you have been more devoted to your professions than these workers that place upon your tables luscious fruits, in your parlors and drawing rooms, beautiful flowers, and surround your homes with taste and adornment? Have you ever stopped to think how much you owe to this profession? Whatever success we have attained has been by patient, painstaking research, gleaning a little knowledge here and there; but the greatest teacher has been close observation and practical experience in the garden, the orchard and on the farm.

God has instituted certain laws with certain principles for governing his universe, and man must conform to those laws to obtain certain results. That there is a cause for all our failures no one doubts. The reason for our want of success in certain experiments has occupied the best thoughts of our leading pomologists and horticulturists hundreds of years. Whenever an attempt has been made to cultivate certain fruits above certain latitudes it has thus far proved a failure. Frost is king, and our most experienced experts in horticulture have not beenable. to ward off his icy touch. Many of the trees with which we have experimented will not endure a freezing temperature; others, while not killed, are seriously injured by our long winters, and it is conceded that a heavy frost in early fall, before the wood has properly matured, and while the sap is flowing, often injures trees that seem hardy enough to endure the coldest winter.

In the Minnesota Horticultural Report for 1881, page 41, Prof. Porter says: "Why vitality is destroyed by a low temperature is an unsolved question;" giving us to understand that it may be at some future time. I think we have much yet to learn in the acclimation of the Russian apple before it will prove entirely satisfactory. That it has some good points we must all admit; coming as it does inured to rigorous cold, we hope it may prove all its most sanguine friends anticipate. With these, as with all other new varieties, we should be cautious concerning extensive planting until fully persuaded that success is perched upon its banners.

In Hemsley's Hardy Trees and Fruits, page 563, on "Climate, its Influence on Vegetation," he says: "It is now universally conceded that no process of acclimatization can succeed in making a plant frost proof even to the extent of one degree." Now,