THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 77 



and Black Hamburg. But the second experiment was even more disastrous 

 than the first as he got no fruit. The real start was made in 1824 when 

 Mr. Fay obtained vines of Catawba and Isabella from Prince of Flushing, 

 Long Island. The vines were trained on trellises. The vineyard covered 

 a plot two bj' eight rods in extent. From a rise of land near this spot one 

 now sees grapes everywhere, probably a greater acreage of them than can 

 be seen from any other spot east of the Rocky Mountains. 



In 1830 Deacon Fay made ten gallons of wine, the first for the region. 

 In I S3 4, Lincoln Fay, a nephew of Elijah Fay, started the sale of grape 

 vines but not many vines were sold for commercial plantings until as late 

 as 1850. In 1859 there were in the town of Portland but twenty acres of 

 bearing grape vines where now are thousands. During the decade that 

 followed, the Concord v.-as generally introduced giving the viticulture of 

 the region a great impetus. Grapes were not yet grown for table use 

 to any great extent and a large acreage could not be used for wine-making. 

 In 1859 a wine-cellar was built by Fay, Ryckman' and Haywood at Brocton 

 and for a long while this company used almost the total crop of the region. 

 It was not until the early seventies that the grape-growers sought other 

 markets than the wine-cellars. In 1870 there were about 600 acres of 

 vineyards in Chautauqua County. 



The first talile-grapes of the region were packed in twenty-pound 

 splint baskets. Dunkirk was the primary marketing place and the fruit 

 was shipped from here to various large cities by through freight. The 

 transportation facilities were not satisfactory and in 1880 Jonas Martin 

 of Brocton tried the experiment of shipping a carload of grapes to Phila- 

 delphia. This was the first carload of grapes sent from Chautauqua County. 

 In 1906, 4690 carloads were shipped and 844 were converted into wine and 

 grape juice, representing all told $2,482,822.^ Until 1883 the markets were 

 confined to nearby cities but in this year a carload was safel}' sent to Spokane, 

 after which time markets were found from the Atlantic to the Pacific and 

 from the Gulf to Upper Canada. The first grape-growers' union was formed 

 in 1886 as the Chautauqua Grape Growers' Shipping Association and its 

 organization marked a new epoch in the grape industry of the district. 



' The writer is indebted to Mr. G. E. Ryckman of this firm, for the information given here, 

 ^ The Grape Belt, i6: Xo. 20, Feb. 26, 1907. 



