96 An American Fruit-Farm 



that will not dry. The former are known the world 

 over as "layers." The non-raisin grape is of the 

 temperate zone; the raisin grape is subtropical: 

 the division is strictly climatic. In America the 

 raisin grape area is in California; the table grape 

 areas are numerous and widely scattered. One 

 of the noted areas is the Lake Shore Valley, which 

 includes the celebrated Chautauqua Belt, of west- 

 ern New York. In these days when young men are 

 taking up horticulture as a vocation, as other men 

 take law, medicine, or engineering, they will do as 

 does the young lawyer or engineer, — ^they will go 

 to the place where such business as they wish to 

 carry on is done in the best manner and most 

 profitably. Thus, as the years pass, the ablest and 

 most successful fruit-growers will be found in the 

 best fruit regions of the country. The non-raisin 

 or table grape — ^the common wine grape of the 

 country — comes to perfection at the northern 

 margin of grape cultivation. Here they reach 

 perfection of quality and quantity. This law of 

 fruitage is common to all vegetable life. Quality 

 may determine the commercial value of any fruit. 

 This is true of grapes. 



Left to itself the grapevine grows to extraor- 

 dinary length, and ever tends to foliage rather than 

 to fruit, — ^whence the vigorous trimming necessary 

 in viticulture, for the art of raising grapes consists 

 in converting superfluous foliage into superior fruit. 

 You may have a hundred feet of vine and here and 

 there a scraggly, small bunch of inferior fruit. Cut 



