GRAPE REGIONS AND THEIR DETERMINANTS 33 



Sites cannot be standardized, and therefore no two are alike. 

 The cardinal natural factors to be secured in a site are warmth, 

 sun, air and freedom from frost. These factors have been dis- 

 cussed in a general way under the climate of grape regions, but 

 one needs to particularize a little more closely to ascertain how 

 they affect individual vineyards. Warmth, sun, air and frost- 

 lessness are best secured by proximity to water, high land and 

 proper exposure. 



Proximity to water. 



The favorable influences of water are w r ell illustrated in the 

 grape regions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada. 

 All of the grape districts in these regions are bounded on one 

 or more sides by water. The equalizing effects of large bodies 

 of water on temperature, warmer winter and cooler summer, 

 are so well known as scarcely to need comment. Hardly less 

 important than the effects of water on temperature are the 

 off-shore breezes of night and the in-shore breezes of day which 

 blow on large bodies of water. These keep the air of the vine- 

 yard in constant motion and so prevent frosts in spring and 

 autumn, and also dry foliage and fruit so that spores of fungi 

 have difficulty in finding foothold. But if water brings fogs, 

 dews and humidity, as does the Pacific, grapes must be planted 

 inland ; otherwise leaf, bloom and fruit are born in the blight 

 of fungi. The benign influences of water are felt in the eastern 

 grape regions at distances of one to four miles, seldom farther. 

 These narrow belts about the eastern waters are bounded on 

 the landward side by high bluffs over which many showers fail 

 to pass and which protect the belts below from heavy dews. 

 Where the background of bluffs in these regions sinks to level 

 land, vineyards cease. 



Vineyards are usually some distance above the water, the 

 range in altitude running from fifty to five hundred feet. Where 

 the altitude is much higher, immunity to frosts and winter 



