156 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



can be stated excepting on the basis of a careful study extending 

 over several years. The lake breeze of the day must moderate 

 the daytime temperature ; and the land breeze of the night may 

 in some cases so keep the air in motion as to prevent frosts. That 

 there is a marked influence upon climate as a result of the peculiar 

 conditions of topography and neighborhood of water, is evident at 

 the very first. The sketch maps (Figs. 70 and 71) show that the 

 mean annual rainfall is greater on the escarpment than on the 

 lake plain, and that t?ie mean annual temperature of the hills is 

 lower than that near the lake. During the disastrous frost of May, 

 1895, the vineyards in the grape belt, taken as an average, suffered 

 less near the lake, while tliose farthest from the water were most in- 

 jured. Still there were cases of vineyards near the lake that suffered 

 considerably, while some on the escarpment were scarcely touched.* 



Most Favorable Places for the Location of Vinetards. 

 As has been said, there are two factors in the problem w^hich 

 deals with the reason for the conditions in the grape belt, one cli- 

 matic the other geologic. The climatic features are dependent 

 upon the location near a large lake, and the presence of the bound- 

 ing escarpment, which confines this influence to a narrow limit. 

 In the eastern part, where the escarpment is relatively low and far 

 from the lake, the influence of the lake is much less distinct. f 



*The behavior of this frost was altogether remarkable, leaving some dis- 

 tricts or vineyards almost unharmed, and uoarly ruining the crop in others, 

 while even in the same vineyard these extremes M'ere sometimes noticed. 

 This was probably chiefly due to eddies of the air, for oven though air is 

 almost quiet, it is still in uneven motion. One may see this illustrated 

 on a calm day by noiticing the movements of a column of smoke. The 

 air, being invisible does not reveal those movements, and we become 

 aware of them only when the conditions are exceptional, as when a frost 

 is dealing out destruction to vegetation. The condition of the ground 

 also affects the frost, and the question whether it is dry or moist, freshly 

 plowed or turf covered, whether there are trees or pastures or plowed 

 ground in the noighborliood, all have their influence; but this subject 

 has never been properly studied, and it is not possible to sta.to just how 

 these differences affect frost action. 



tThis Avas well illustrated during a frost in the middle of September, 

 1895. At Westfield there was no indication of a frost, east of Silver Creek 

 signs of its effect began to appear, and at Hamburg, the frost had done 

 considerable damage to the more delicate forms of vegetation. 



