92 THE GRAPES OF XEW YORK. 



selling been tried, the nearness to market obviating the necessity of 

 co-operation. 



The insect pests in this district are neither numerous nor particularly 

 destructive, the grape leaf-hopper and the grape-vine flea-beetle being 

 most common. Spraying for insects is not generally practiced. On the 

 other hand the fungus troubles are serious, the black-rot having been 

 especially destructive in some sections. The other diseases are much the 

 same as in the districts discussed. While all of the fungi of the district 

 are amenable to treatment yet spraying has not been generally practiced 

 nor have the vines been kept as vigorous and healthy through cultivation 

 and fertilization as to withstand the attacks of the several fungi. The 

 decreased acreage of grapes along the Hudson during the past decade or 

 two is due in some measure to the fact that the grape diseases have not 

 been controlled. With better knowledge of the life-habits of the insects 

 and fungi which attack vineyards, and means of combatting these pests, 

 viticulture should regain the prestige it once held in the Hudson Valley. 



THE NIAGAR.\ DISTRICT. 



The Niagara district, the smallest of the several grape areas of the 

 State, lies along the Niagara river and the southern shore of Lake Ontario. 

 In it are about 4700 acres distributed in counties as follows: Erie, 2100; 

 Niagara, 1250; Orleans, 375; Monroe, 700; Wayne. 380. In the southern 

 part of Erie County the vine\-ards are grown imder conditions very similar 

 to those we have described in the Chautauqua district; the treatment 

 given is much the same; the grapes are marketed as are those in the dis- 

 trict to the south and west; and the Concord, as in the larger district, is 

 the variety most largelv grown. But conditions in the northern and east- 

 ern part of the county more nearly approach those along Niagara river 

 and the Ontario shore so that the county is included in the Niagara district. 



In Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, and Wayne Counties the grape lands 

 are in what is known as the Ontario plain. This plain has for its western 

 boundary in the United States, Niagara River; for its northern l)Oundary 

 Lake Ontario; to the south there is a high escarpment, the Niagara escarp>- 

 ment, or " the mountain ", separating the Ontario plain from the Erie 

 plain which is an eastward extension of the low plain on the south shore 



