Treatinent of the American Grape Vine 



17 



three. Buchanan, one of the earliest, 

 and Mead, one of the latest writers 

 on grape-culture, recommend four by 

 six feet as the extreme distances ; and 

 I do not recollect an}' text-book which 

 suggests a distance greater than six 

 feet in either direction for planting in 

 vineyards. 



But, however closely our vines were 

 planted in early vineyard cultivation, 

 the experience of practical cultivators 

 soon demonstrated that the American 

 vine required more room for growth, 

 if the best results were to be attained; 

 and, from three feet by three, the dis- 

 tance has, from time to time, been in- 

 creased, until, now, eight feet by eight 

 is more commonly adopted than an}' 

 other, where the vines are to be train- 

 ed to wire trellis. 



But there was one locality in which 

 vineyard-cultivation was commenced 

 nearly thirty years ago, and Avhere the 

 planters were far removed from out- 

 side counsel. They were compelled 

 to study the nature and habits of the 

 vine, and thus deduce methods for its 

 treatment. Extending south-west 

 from the head of Canandaigua Lake 

 in the State of New York, a distance 

 of several miles, is Naples Yalley, 

 which, to-day, has over a thousand 

 acres of vineyard on one of its sides. 

 Hills a thousand feet in height en- 

 close it ; and there, for many years, 

 the American Neapolitans lived seclud- 

 ed from the world. The Erie Eail- 

 way, a branch of which is now but six 

 miles distant from it on the west, was 

 then undreamed of. No steamboat 

 was launched on Canandaigua Lake to 

 facilitate communication Avith their 

 transmontane fellow-beings. The cum- 

 brous stage-coach, clambering over 



mountain-roads, brought them intelli- 

 gence of the scandals and the gossip- 

 ings, and the disorders and the crimes, 

 and the convulsions, social and gov- 

 ei'nmental, native and exotic, which, 

 in those days, sorely tried the temper 

 of the sons of Adam on this mundane 

 sphere. There they lived, had their 

 periodical spasms of politics, voted the 

 regular ticket, got married, multiplied, 

 and did a good many things in a pecu- 

 liarly American way; for, isolated as 

 they were, the injunction of the Fath- 

 er of his Country to ''beware of for- 

 eign influence " was to them a work 

 of supererogation, because " foreign 

 influence " had no special desire to en- 

 counter the perils of stage-coach nav- 

 igation on bad mountain-roads to make 

 itself felt upon the manners and cus- 

 toms of the citizens of Naples Valley, 

 N. Y. 



Thus it was, that in the year of 

 grace 1840, when Mr. McKay, an in- 

 telligent lawyer, determined to plant 

 a vineyard in that region, he had no 

 one who had ever seen a vineyard to 

 give him counsel and advice. Arbor 

 and garden training on high trellises 

 were the only methods in vogue in 

 grape-culture of which he had any 

 knowledge ; and, in planting an acre 

 of Isabella vines, he put them in the 

 ground a rod apart in each direction, 

 — a system of planting which required 

 a hundred and sixty vines for the acre. 

 And, to make sure that his ground 

 should be rich enough for grapes, he 

 took advantage of the fact of a drove 

 of cattle dying in the valley from some 

 malady, and dug deep pits in the 

 ground he intended for his vineyard, 

 in each of which he placed the carcass 

 of an ox, refuse bones, and leather- 



