128 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Topography. 



The situation of tlie grape belt is peculiar. From Lake Ontario 

 southward, toward Niagara Falls or Lockport, there is a nearly level 

 plain extending to the base of the Niagara escarpment, known 



< <I 



SOUTH 

 NORTH 

 L. ONTARIO 



SEA LEVEL _„_ _ __ 



49. — Profile of the Niagara escarpment. 



locally as "the mountain" (Fig. 49), which raises quite abruptly to a 

 height of two or three hundred feet. This escarpment is well seen 

 at Lewiston, where the basal plain stretches away toward the lake 

 with scarcely any diversity to break the monotony. All of this plain 

 is less than 500 feet in elevation above the sea, and it borders the 

 entire southern shore of Ontario. 



South of the Niagara escarpment, toward Batavia or Buffalo, 

 there is another plain, which beyond Buffalo narrows down to a 

 width of only one or two miles as the state line is approached. It 

 is nowhere below 500 feet, nor above 800 feet in elevation. This 

 narrow strip which borders the Erie shore is the true grape belt. 

 Everywhere the southern margin of this plain is backed by an 



LAKE ERIE 



50.— Location of the grape belt. 



escarpment or ridge (Fig. 50), which quickly raises to a height of 

 500 or 600 feet above the plain, and in some places is over J, 000 

 feet above the lake. Therefore, the grape belt (in New York) 

 is a narrow plain extending north-eastward from the Pennsyl- 

 vania state line, and bounded on the north by the lake, on the 

 south by a high range of hills. East of Silver Creek the plain 

 widens and the bounding escarpment loses in elevation. This 

 narrow plain is only a small fragment of the real plain ; for the 

 waters of Lake Erie cover the greater part of it. As is shown in 

 the profile (Fig. 50), the plain descends beneath the lake waters 



