GRAPE-GROWING SECTIONS OF NEW YORK 



F. E. GLADWIX 



Associate Horticulturist, Vineyard Laboratory of the Xew York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Fredonia, X. Y. 



The gi-ape growing area of Xew York is divided into four 

 principal regions with one or more rather limited outlying dis- 

 tricts. In point of acreage they rank as follows : the Chautau- 

 qua belt, extending from the Pennsylvania state line on the west 

 to Derby on the east; the Central Lakes region, which includes 

 the territory about Canandaigua, Cayuga, Keuka, and Seneca 

 lakes and the nearby area about Naples; the Hudson Valley, 

 and the Lake Ontario district, extending from the Niagara River 

 east through Wayne County. A limited area about Fayetteville 

 produces grapes in commercial quantities. 



cox COED 



The Chautauqua and Erie belt is essentially a Concord area, 

 as probably ninety-five per cent of all vines are of that variety. 

 Seldom has a variety of any fruit been adopted so generally as 

 the Concord grape in this district. Such extensive planting does 

 not necessarily imply that other varieties could not be more profit- 

 ably grown in many instances, where special types and conditions 

 of soil occur. It seems to have been a case of " follow the leader." 

 That the Concord is quite adaptable to many varieties of soils, 

 and that it is tolerant of considerable extremes in its moisture 

 requirements, is proved over and over again in practice through- 

 out the belt. That there does exist the best Concord soil cannot 

 be doubted, but the areas of such are rather limited. 



The principal factor that makes the Concord grape the un- 

 disputed leader among varieties, not only for the Chautauqua 

 district but for the entire eastern United States, is its elasticity 

 in the matter of soils. In connection with its wide range of soil 

 and climate adaptability, it is the foremost because of its ability 

 to stand the average winter temperatures of New York. This 

 important characteristic is dependent in a large measure upon 

 the fact that this variety is a midseason one, and, except under 



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