108 AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING 



New York receives the bulk of the crop grown in this 

 region. Large shipments are made to Philadelphia, 

 Boston, Buffalo, Baltimore, Washington and intermedi- 

 ate places. Early in the history of this industry, the 

 crates made for carrying strawberries and raspberries 

 were used for shipping grapes. New York being a great 

 distributing point, buyers for shipping to other places 

 were seriously incommoded by the necessity of returning 

 the crates. To obviate this diflBculty, baskets holding 

 five or ten pounds of grapes were introduced, and soon 

 came into quite general use. But as the supply of fruit 

 increased, and prices became lower, the cost of carting 

 from boat or car to the stores was felt to be a serious 

 handicap to the business. Then a cheap crate — non- 

 returnable — found favor. At this time crates contain- 

 ing eight light tills, and holding forty pounds of grapes 

 when filled, are generally used. 



GIRDLING THE VINE. 



According to Prof. L. H. Bailey, "girdling, or ring- 

 ing various fruit trees was certainly practiced by the 

 Romans, and the Agricultural Society of France awarded 

 a premium to Buchatt about a century and a half ago, 

 for a method of girdling the grapevine. * * * The 

 first valuable experiments made with ringing the grape- 

 vine in America was begun in 1877 at the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College, and the practice has been em- 

 ployed more or less continuously since that time. * * * 

 Girdling usually hastens maturity and increases size of 

 the fruit ; it is supposed to lessen the quality of the 

 fruit ; its effect upon the vine has not been clearly de- 

 termined." Mr. John Burroughs, who resides in this 

 grape region, says: "My opinion of the practice of 

 girdling grapevines is, that on the whole it is poor busi- 

 ness." * * * "If all take to girdling, where is the 

 advantage ? It is like the crowd all getting up on chairs 

 at the show." 



