FRUITS 397 



therefore, for the development of the highest types of table 

 grapes. In addition to the native species that have been 

 brought under cultivation, from which 800 named varieties 

 have been produced, there are numerous other promising 

 species that await development. While table grapes were 

 being developed in the eastern states, the Old .World Vitis 

 vimfera was being established in California, where it was 

 free from the disease which attacked it in the eastern spates. 

 In California, therefore, grape culture is like that in Europe, 

 and wine is the principal product. 



Although grapes are cultivated almost everywhere in 

 the United States, the area of commercial grape culture is 

 not very extensive. The greatest areas in the eastern 

 states are those in New York and Ohio bordering lakes and 

 large streams, as the lower part of the Hudson River valley, 

 the lake region of central and western New York, and the 

 Lake Erie region of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. 

 There are also large vineyards in Ontario, Michigan, etc., 

 and grape culture is extending into other regions. The 

 area of grape culture in California in 1900 was 140,000 acres, 

 one-seventh of the product being table grapes, two-sevenths 

 raisin grapes, and four-sevenths wine grapes. 



The care of grape-vines requires knowledge and experi- 

 ence, for proper pruning, to reduce the amount of wood and 

 to keep the plant in suitable form, can be learned only by 

 demonstration. The training of the vines is to keep them 

 off the ground, so that the fruit may be exposed to light and 

 air. Naturally in extensive cultivation this training is of 

 the simplest sort to secure the result ; but in home cultiva- 

 tion it often takes the form of a more or less elaborate " grape 

 arbor." The propagation of grapes is usually by cuttings, 

 already described (p. 326), which are usually secured in the 

 winter from the trimmings of vineyards. These cuttings, 

 each one with two or three buds, are usually kept until spring 

 by being buried half their depth in sand in a cellar. 



