Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/249

 first planting of orchards. Yet no such root killing has ever before swept entire nurseries, young orchards and vineyards out of existence, no varieties escaping. The “Iron-clads” were wiped out with the tender varieties. The Concord grape and Snyder blackberry, which had heretofore withstood the severest winters known in Iowa, were mostly destroyed or seriously injured. Iowa nurserymen were obliged to import trees and vines from States further south to supply their customers in the spring of 1899, and it was very difficult to find uninjured nursery trees anywhere in the upper Mississippi valley. The older orchards of apple trees were much less damaged, many escaped with slight injury. The State Horticultural Society made searching investigations into the causes which produced the widespread devastation, but there was a great difference of opinion as to causes and remedies for the future. The report of the secretary says:

The damage was not confined to fruit trees, vines and bushes; red clover, evergreens and many varieties of forest trees were killed and such as survived were seriously injured. No such general damage to evergreens and forest trees was ever before known in Iowa.

The Prohibitionists held a State Convention at Des Moines on the 23d of May, 1899, and nominated the following candidates for the various offices: Governor, M. W. Atwood; Lieutenant-Governor, George Pugsley; Supreme Judge, H. F. Johns; Superintendent of Public Instruction, D. S. Dunlavy; Eailway Commissioner, A.