THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 85 



ripen from one to two weeks earlier about these lakes than they do in the 

 Chautauqua belt. Thus the Concords grown here are well out of the way 

 of those grown in the Chautauqua distiict. The Catawba, which ripens 

 late and is a " good keeper ", can be kept in fine condition until midwinter 

 or later. The range of season in this district, then, is from the first part 

 of September until February or even March. 



Though there have been grape-growers' unions for marketing the 

 fruit of this district at various times, most of it now goes through the hands 

 of individual buyers. An exception is the product of the large vineyards 

 of Niagaras in Seneca County, the fruit of which is marketed with that of 

 the product of other Niagara vineyards of the Niagara district of western 

 New York through a union of growers. 



The grapes in this district are variously trained but the high renewal 

 system is used chiefly. In this system the head of the trunk is from twenty 

 to thirty inches from the ground. Usually the trellis has three wires, the 

 lowest about twenty inches from the ground and the others at distances 

 of eighteen inches apart. New canes are brought out from renewal stubs 

 and once in two or three years an attempt is made to bring them directly 

 from the head of the main trunk. This system is particularly well adapted 

 to the Catawba and Delaware so generally grown in the lake region. 

 Thorough cultivation is practiced and the fall cover crop of oats, barley or 

 clover is coming into favor. 



It is difficult to ascertain the acreage in this district. Taking the 

 figures of the census of 1900 and those of a canvass made by this Station 

 in the winter of 1906-7 the acreage in the several counties is about as fol- 

 lows: Yates, 7940; Steuben, 5570; Ontario, 2630; Schuyler, 1014; Seneca, 

 1540; total 18,694. These figures are slightly larger than the estimates 

 of grape-growers and buyers but chiefly so because they take in scattered 

 plantations throughout the several counties. Thus in all of these counties 

 there are a surprisingly large number of Niagara vineyards in out-of-the- 

 way places, set during the Niagara boom of the eighties. To this Central 

 Lakes district might also be added 500 acres of commercial vineyards in 

 Livingston County; 250 in Cayuga and 250 in Tompkins Counties. The 

 total valuation of the crop in this district in 1900 was $943,964. 



Insects are not as troublesome in the Central Lakes district as in the 



