186 RURAL NEW YORK 



and orchards have been started in the lakes fruit 

 belt. Scattered trees of bearing age occur at a num- 

 ber of points in the western part of the State. 

 These give a fairly consistent yield of nuts. As 

 yet, the propagation of trees from cuttings has been 

 difficult and the bearing trees, which are seedlings, 

 are of variable quality. 



From almost the first settlement by the Dutch, 

 attempts were made to grow grapes and make wine. 

 The early efforts were with foreign varieties and these 

 were all failures in the New World. All the grapes 

 now grown commercially, except those used for rais- 

 ins, have been developments from the native Ameri- 

 can sorts. The American varieties do not contain 

 enough sugar and solids for making raisins. Rich- 

 ards of Manhattan Island had vineyards there and on 

 Long Island and as early as 1G64 enjoyed a monopoly 

 in wine-making in that region. Robert Underbill at 

 Croton Point on the Hudson, acting under the sugges- 

 tion of Mr. Parmenter of Brooklyn who had given 

 much study to grape-growing, developed the first 

 important vineyard in the Hudson Valley. He be- 

 gan in 1827 with the varieties Catawba and Isabella, 

 and expanded his vineyard to seventy-five acres. 

 These same varieties also constituted the first plant- 

 ings in western New York. The variety Isabella ap- 

 peared as a mutant in the garden of Mrs. Isabella 

 Gibbs in Brooklyn. In 1818 Deacon Elijah Fay 

 planted the first grapes in Chautauqua County, near 

 Brocton, which led to the foundation of the indus- 



