Wine-Making in the Lake-SJtore Region. 85 



air of the lake in spring retards vegetation so far, that there is seldom anv 

 injury done to the vines by late frosts ; but, when once the buds have start- 

 ed, the shoots grow with wonderful rapidity. The warm water of the lake 

 tempers the air passing over it in the fall, and keeps back the autumn frosts 

 until the last days of October, or first days of November. 



Even the Catawba generally ripens, and the Isabella seldom fails to fully 

 mature its fruit, while the earlier varieties are certain. 



The towns of Portland, Pomfret, and Westfield, in the centre of which 

 Brocton is situated, have another advantage by reason of their geographi- 

 cal position. A few miles back from the lake, and over the range of hills, 

 is Chautauqua Lake, a navigable body of water, over twenty miles long. In 

 autumn, when, sometimes, the sun sets with a clear sky, and gradually the 

 air from Lake Erie ceases to waft over the land, and when, in a less favored 

 region, frost would be regarded as certain, there is seldom any apprehen- 

 sion felt on this score. Experience has shown, that, on such occasions, dur- 

 ing the night, a warm southerly breeze, wafted over the surface of Chau- 

 tauqua Lake, returns to disturb the course of Nature which would other- 

 wise be fatal to the maturity of the fruit. 



Another fact which favors the section is the moderate rainfall of sum- 

 mer. The charmed section between the hill-tops and the lake-shore will not 

 unfrequently be favored with dry weather and warm sunshine, while beyond 

 the hills and over the lake, the storm-clouds will be sending down copious 

 rains. 



In the three towns named, there are nearly fifteen hundred acres of land 

 in vineyard, about nine hundred acres of which are in bearing ; and yet 

 the great bulk of the grape-lands, almost the whole, are still devoted to 

 ordinary farming-purposes. 



Though grapes have been successfully cultivated for forty-five years, and 

 there are a number of vineyards over thirty years old, yet it has only been 

 within the past ten or a dozen years that grape-culture has assumed pro- 

 portions of any magnitude. 



More recently, a greater impetus has been given to it by the investment 

 of capital from other parts. 



Mr. T. L. Harris, the head of a religious community, purchased about 

 seventeen hundred acres of land, and has already over seventy acres of 



