THE XEW YORK WINE INDUSTRY 1251 



The Chautauqiia district includes the wine industry in a grape 

 of some 30,000 acres, which extends from Erie County to 

 the Pennsylvania line along the southeastern shore of Lake Erie 

 for a distance of about 50 miles. It is the largest single, con- 

 tinuous stretch of vineyards in the United States. The wine 

 industry in this district was started in 1850, when the Ryckman 

 cellar was built at Brocton. In the sixties and seventies other 

 wineries were established, and for a number of years, or up to 

 1884, they took most of the grape crop. Then came a grape 

 boom, and the planting of vineyards in the Chautauqua district 

 increased by leaps and bounds. The great bulk of the crop was 

 of the Concord variety, which, although it did not make a high- 

 grade wine, was in growing demand for table purposes and for 

 grape juice. This, together with the flooding of the markets 

 with cheap California wines, gave the wine industry of the dis- 

 trict a setback from which it has not yet recovered. 



The Niagara district includes the industry in Erie, Niagara 

 and Monroe counties with a total of about 3,800 acres of yine- 

 yards. There are several wine cellars in this district; they use 

 grapes from their own and other districts. In fact, large quan- 

 tities of grapes from the different districts in New York are 

 shipped each season to wine makers in the large^cities and to 

 wineries outside of the state. 



VARIETIES OF GRAPES USED FOR MAKING WINES 



Professor U. P. Iledrick in his monumental work, " The Grapes 

 of New York," has given a very complete account of all of the 

 important varieties of American grapes and of the different grape- 

 growing districts in this state. Those who desire a full descrip- 

 tion of varieties should read Professor Hedrick's work, which is 

 a mine of information.* 



Native Grapes 



New York wines are made from the native, or American, grapes. 

 Although there are several hundred varieties, only some sixteen 



* The " Grapes of New York," by U. P. Hedrick, Horticulturist, New York 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. See also article by F. E. Gladwin, page 1238. 



