MICniGAX STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 457 



MICHIGAN VINEYARDS. 



^'RAPE-GROW I>-G IX THE VICINITY OF MONROE-EXTENSR-E GRAPE- 



RIES-LARGELY INCREASED BUSINESS— HOW GRAPES ARE 



GROWN AND WINE MADE. 



MoNiiOE, November 1G, 1871. 



The business of graiic-growiug is each year attaining greater 

 importance in this country, and attracting general attention 

 by the greatly improved quality of the grapes, and the supe- 

 rior wines that find a ready mai'ket all over the States and 

 Territories. Until within a comparatively short time there 

 were but one or two localities which were thought adapted in 

 climate and soil for the cultivation of this sensitive and deli- 

 cate fruit. It was not considered possible to bring it to matu- 

 rity in a latitude so far north as Michigan, but the last four 

 years has demonstrated, beyond a doubt, that in no other 

 locality have grapes of all kinds been grown to greater perfec- 

 tion than upon the western shores of Lake Erie, and so suc- 

 cessful has been the experiment that a large number of acres 

 of land has been devoted to this business. As will be seen by 

 comparing the following brief outline of the operations this 

 year with that given in the Free Press in October of last year, 

 the production has something more than doubled. 



The Point au Peau Wine Company now have about fifteen 

 acres of vines, most of them bearing, divided among the fol- 

 lowing five varieties: Concord, Delaware, Catawba, Ives' Seed- 

 ling, Norton's Virginia; the Concord largely predominating, 

 and the others about in proportion of the order given. The 

 yield this yeai", in pounds, was G9,570, or about the same as last 



68 



