New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 495 
Chautauqua line; its western limit is an arbitrary division — 
the New York-Pennsylvania line — for the district passes into 
Pennsylvania. 
Elijah Fay planted the first grapes in this district in 1818; 
they were wild vines of Vitis labrusca from New England. In 
1822 he planted roots of Millers Burgundy, Sweetwater and 
Black Hamburg. These were not as successful as the first, 
and the real start was made in 1824 when Mr. Fay planted 
Catawba and Isabella vines secured from Prince of Long 
Island. These vines were trained on trellises and covered an 
area two by eight rods in extent. The gale of grape vines was 
started by Lincoln Fay in 1854; but few were sold, for in 1859 
there were only twenty acres of bearing vines in the town of 
Portland. In the decade following, the Concord was intro- 
duced, and in 1870 there were about 600 acres in Chautauqua 
County. The first carload of grapes was shipped from Chau- 
tauqua County in 1880; the shipment was made to Philadel- 
phia by Jonas Martin. In 1900 the shipment reached 8,000 
carloads and in 1906, 5,634 carloads. This apparent decrease 
is accounted for by the large quantities used locally for wine 
and grape juice. According to a canvass made by this Station 
in the preparation of “ The Grapes of New York ” the acreage 
of this district was, in 1906-7, distributed approximately as 
follows: Portland, 9,500; Westfield, 5,700; Ripley, 5,700; 
Pomfret, 4,600; Hanover, 1,950; Sheridan, 1,950; Dunkirk, 
600; making a total of about 30,000 acres of grapes. Accord- 
ing to the figures gathered 90 per ct. of this acreage was set to 
Concord, 3 per ct. to Niagara, 2 per ct. to Worden, 1 per ct. 
each to Moore Early and Catawba, with the remainder made 
up of a dozen or more varieties, of which Delaware leads. 
The grape belt proper is on a comparatively low, narrow 
plain, bordering the southeastern shore of Lake Erie and ex- 
tending back from the lake bluff to the bill or escarpment, 
which rises from 500 to 700 feet above the plain and 500 to 
1,000 above the lake. The plain is gently rolling and every- 
where may be seen ancient beach lines, ascending in from two 
