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Page 4, 1903 Will Seed Company Catalog
SHSND# 10190Fairs also had categories for fruits. (Muskmelons and watermelons were always classed with vegetables, even at the Minot State Fair.) The lists are considerably shorter and often include wild as well as domestic fruits. The Pembina Fair of 1897 added fruits in the Culinary Division. Currants (red, black, white), gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries “not preserved” appeared along with jellies, jams, and pickles. The Morton County Fair had entries for fruits only as jellies, jams, or preserves until 1900. These included fruits that were not native and generally cannot be cultivated in ND such as blueberries and blackberries.
In 1904, the Morton County Fair began to include a Horticultural Division in which fruits could be judged. The fruit list expanded to include “tame” currants (red and white), red and black raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, strawberries, crabapples, and apples (summer and winter). Grapes appeared briefly on the list from 1924 to 1928.
The Fargo Fair of 1910 listed fruit categories by variety which was not the case for vegetables other than potatoes. The varieties included some that appear in Will’s catalogs and in the fruit lists from the NDAC. Others do not appear elsewhere in this history. To give you some idea of the kind of headache the fruit judges faced, they have been listed on page 10. Bold indicates a fruit variety not found elsewhere.