68 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



western New York, and this proved to be the begin- 

 ning of the famous New York vineyard interest, which, 

 as practiced about the central lakes, is to this day the 

 most important Catawba- growing region in the land. 

 About that time, Rev. William Bostwick planted vines 

 of Catawba and Isabella, and he raised excellent 

 grapes. About 1843, William Hastings planted vines 

 of the same varieties in his garden, and was also suc- 

 cessful. The first regular vineyard in the region was 

 one of about two acres of Catawbas and Isabellas, 

 planted in the town of Pulteney in 1853. But as early 

 as 1846, grapes were shipped from this Keuka Lake 

 region to New York. A shipment of two hundred to 

 three hundred pounds, according to George O. Snow, 

 shipped on the Erie Canal, broke the New York city 

 market. In 1890, the same region shipped, exclusive 

 of the amount used for wine, about twenty thousand 

 tons of grapes. 



Grape -growing began in the lower Hudson River 

 Valley about the same time as about Keuka Lake. 

 One of the earliest vineyards was planted in 1845, of 

 Isabella vines, in Ulster county, by William T. Cornell. 

 Another early planter was William Kniffin, a neighbor 

 of Cornell, the originator of the now famous Kniffin 

 system of training. The evolution of grape training 

 has shown the same transformation as that of the 

 grapes themselves. The early methods were essentially 

 or exactly those used in Europe, but with the gradual 

 aggrandizement of the native species, distinctively 

 native systems of training arose. The interest in 

 grapes was soon widespread, having been disseminated 

 from many early small centers from New England and 

 New York to Missouri and the Southern states. 



