Читать книгу The Grapes of New York - U. P. Hedrick - Страница 11

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Of the four grape regions of New York the Chautauqua district is by far the most important though, excepting the Niagara, the most recent in development. The Chautauqua grape belt lies along the southeastern shore of Lake Erie. It averages about three miles in width and is about fifty miles long. Its northeastern boundary is in Erie County but not far from the line dividing Erie and Chautauqua Counties; its western boundary, in New York, is the Pennsylvania line, an arbitrary division, for the district passes into Pennsylvania. This narrow belt passes through the towns of Hanover, Sheridan, Dunkirk, Pomfret, Portland, Westfield and Ripley in Chautauqua County. Not all, but much, of the land is suitable for grape-growing.

The topography, geology, and soils of this grape-belt have been carefully mapped and studied.[93][94]

The grape land is, as we have seen, a narrow strip of comparatively low land which borders the shore of Lake Erie. On the southern boundary of this low plain is a high hill or escarpment parallel to the lake and surmounting the grape belt throughout its entire length. This escarpment, the “Hill”, ranges from 500 to 700 feet above the plain and from 500 to 1000 feet above the lake. The plain is gently rolling and ascends from the bluff of the lake to the escarpment with a grade of from one to two hundred feet to the mile, forming in some places well-marked foot-hills to the escarpment proper.

The bed rock, according to Tarr[95] is upper Devonian shales and sand stones in both plain and escarpment. On the face of the escarpment and on the table lands of some of the foot-hills the soil is so thin that the plough frequently touches bed rock. This seldom comes to the surface on the plain except in stream beds and in shale ridges, but is to be found in fragments of greater or less size and in more or less abundance throughout the soils of the entire district. Everywhere on the plain may be seen ancient beach lines. These rise usually in two well-defined terraces but not infrequently there are from two to five distinct terraces between the lake and the escarpment. All conditions point to the theory that these ridges are wave built and therefore of lake origin. The plain, the gravel ridges, the foot-hills and the high escarpment are the chief topographical features of the grape belt.

The grape soils of the district, as mapped by the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture,[96] are Dunkirk clay, Dunkirk gravel, Dunkirk gravelly loam, Dunkirk sandy loam and Dunkirk shale loam. The grapes grown upon the several soils vary somewhat as to quantity per acre, as to flavor and sugar content and as to shipping quality.

The largest areas of Dunkirk clay are found running back from the lake east and west from Barcelona, in the neighborhood of Van Buren Point and about Dunkirk. In these regions the soil is a clay loam from several inches to a foot deep resting upon a stiffer and more tenacious clay. Vineyards located on this soil are very productive but the quality is not as high as in the fruit grown on the shale loam, though for most part superior to that produced on the gravel and sandy loams.

Dunkirk gravel soils are found on the ridges at the foot of the escarpment on the southern boundary of the district from Pennsylvania to the eastern boundary of the grape district. Throughout most of this distance there are from one to three parallel ridges varying from a few rods to a half mile in breadth; at many places the ridges run into each other or have been brought together by cultivation. It was upon this gravel that vines were first successfully grown. Grapes upon this soil ripen a week or more earlier than upon other soils and these lands are therefore largely planted with vineyards to supply the early market and they have a larger proportion of early varieties than vineyards on other soils. The Niagara is thought to do especially well on Dunkirk gravel.

Dunkirk gravelly loam is found running through practically the whole grape belt at the base or on the top of the gravel ridges; if at the base, to lakeward of the ridges. It is a sandy loam with much fine gravel and is underlaid at a depth of three feet with sand and shale fragments. On the surface it much resembles the gravel soils having had considerable top gravel brought there by washing and by cultivation. The grapes grown on these soils are very similar to those produced on the gravels though there are some minor differences. Some varieties produce larger berries on this soil, and some sorts, it is claimed, a greater amount of wood.

The Dunkirk sandy loams occur in large irregular areas bordering the lake or running from the lake bluff back to the escarpment. By far the largest of these areas is found about Fredonia and Dunkirk and running east and west of these towns. A second area is found in the neighborhood of Brocton and Portland and especially to the north and west. There are smaller areas east of Barcelona and northwest of Ripley. Nearly all of the sandy loam soils are found on undulating or rolling land. The soil is a brownish-yellow loam from a half foot to a foot in depth. There are some deviations from the type and yet the true sandy loams can be very easily recognized. The soil is of rather heavy texture making good farming land and producing large crops of grapes of slightly inferior quality.

The Dunkirk shale loams are found upon the hill or escarpment. These form the grape lands farthest removed from the lake. This soil is comparatively thin, not averaging more than a half-foot in depth and is hardly ever found a foot deep. It is brown in color with much coarse fragmentary shale on the surface and underlaid with a considerable body of heavy clay. Part of the shale loam land lies on slopes too steep and rough for cultivation but the hillside table lands of this soil are especially well adapted to grape-growing. The grapes grown here contain much sugar, therefore keep and ship well, have a high flavor, and are especially sought for in wine-making; grapes on these soils mature early, have tough skins, but are only medium-sized berries. The yields are much more variable on this soil than on the others because of the great variation in the depth of soil. On deep soils of this loam the yield is all that could be desired. Because of the lay of the land, and the nature of the soil, there is much washing and cultivation must be done judiciously.

The climate is exceptionally favorable for the grape-grower in the Chautauqua district. It is, if anything, of more importance than the land; for grape soils are not uncommon, but a grape climate as near perfection as that of this region is indeed rare. The influence of the lake in modifying the temperature of the region is the chief climatic factor. This influence need not be dwelt upon here for it is common knowledge that large bodies of water temper cold winter weather, hold back vegetation in spring, equalize night and day temperatures of summer, lengthen the growing season and ward off autumn frosts. Each of these influences is highly favorable to the growth of the grape. The escarpment on the southeastern boundary of the belt has a most decided influence on the climate chiefly because it confines the influence of the lake to a narrow belt. When the escarpment becomes low, as at the two extremities of the belt, grape-growing ceases to be profitable. When the distance between the lake and the escarpment is great, the climatic conditions are not so favorable.

The air currents and rainfall of the region are especially favorable. The in-shore breeze of the day and the off-shore breeze at night keep the air in constant motion, thus preventing frosts in spring and autumn, and probably cause in part the great degree of immunity to black-rot and mildew. Unfortunately, data to determine accurately the rainfall of the district cannot be had but such as have been taken indicate that the rainfall is comparatively light for the maturing months of August, September and October and not heavy for the three preceding growing months. Residents of the grape belt claim that most of the heavy showers pass over the hills or down the lake. The whole region is proverbially free from heavy dews. Rain and dew are favorable to black-rot and other fungi and the lack of them still further accounts for the immunity to these pests in the region.

The history of the rise of grape-growing in Chautauqua County forms an interesting chapter in the economic development of New York. The first vines in the Chautauqua district were planted by Elijah Fay[97] in 1818, near the present town of Brocton. These were wild vines of Vitis labrusca from Deacon Fay’s boyhood home in New England. The vines grew luxuriantly but the fruit was not satisfactory and in 1822 this worthy pioneer obtained at great trouble roots of Miller’s Burgundy, Sweetwater and Black Hamburg. But the second experiment was even more disastrous than the first as he got no fruit. The real start was made in 1824 when Mr. Fay obtained vines of Catawba and Isabella from Prince of Flushing, Long Island. The vines were trained on trellises. The vineyard covered a plot two by eight rods in extent. From a rise of land near this spot one now sees grapes everywhere, probably a greater acreage of them than can be seen from any other spot east of the Rocky Mountains.

In 1830 Deacon Fay made ten gallons of wine, the first for the region. In 1834, Lincoln Fay, a nephew of Elijah Fay, started the sale of grape vines but not many vines were sold for commercial plantings until as late as 1850. In 1859 there were in the town of Portland but twenty acres of bearing grape vines where now are thousands. During the decade that followed, the Concord was generally introduced giving the viticulture of the region a great impetus. Grapes were not yet grown for table use to any great extent and a large acreage could not be used for wine-making. In 1859 a wine-cellar was built by Fay, Ryckman[98] and Haywood at Brocton and for a long while this company used almost the total crop of the region. It was not until the early seventies that the grape-growers sought other markets than the wine-cellars. In 1870 there were about 600 acres of vineyards in Chautauqua County.

The first table-grapes of the region were packed in twenty-pound splint baskets. Dunkirk was the primary marketing place and the fruit was shipped from here to various large cities by through freight. The transportation facilities were not satisfactory and in 1880 Jonas Martin of Brocton tried the experiment of shipping a carload of grapes to Philadelphia. This was the first carload of grapes sent from Chautauqua County. In 1906, 4690 carloads were shipped and 844 were converted into wine and grape juice, representing all told $2,482,822.[99] Until 1883 the markets were confined to nearby cities but in this year a carload was safely sent to Spokane, after which time markets were found from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf to Upper Canada. The first grape-growers’ union was formed in 1886 as the Chautauqua Grape Growers’ Shipping Association and its organization marked a new epoch in the grape industry of the district. Smaller and larger organizations have since been formed and at the present time about 80 per ct. of the entire crop is handled by a growers’ union known as the Chautauqua and Erie Grape Company.

According to Mr. G. E. Ryckman, in the early days of the grape industry in this region the fruit was shipped in round paper baskets holding from three to five pounds; later these were made of wood. Sometime in the early seventies twenty-pound splint baskets, which were supposed to be returned to the owners, were introduced. These were superseded by the twelve-pound climax basket; the size of this basket was soon reduced to ten pounds, then to nine, then to eight. Meanwhile a small five-pound basket made on the same lines as the larger one came into use but soon shrunk into a four-pound receptacle. The eight and the four-pound climax baskets are now generally used throughout the region. Increasing quantities are now being shipped to large cities in trays with slatted tops holding about forty pounds each; these grapes are used by the purchaser for wine-making. The wine and grape juice industries of the region have been touched upon in the general discussion of these industries.

An actual canvass made by this Station in the winter of 1906-7 shows there are in the Chautauqua grape belt at this time 30,000 acres of grapes. The census report of 1900 gave the number of vines for the county as 11,914,706, which at the usual number of vines per acre gives about 20,000 acres for the district. This figure was probably low, though that of the Station for 1907 may be somewhat high. The acreage is distributed in towns approximately as follows: Portland 9500; Westfield 5700; Ripley 5700; Pomfret 4600; Hanover 1950; Sheridan 1950; Dunkirk 600. A correspondent writes that the grape shipments for 1907 indicate a considerably larger acreage for the towns of Hanover and Sheridan than are here given. The average yield of grapes is a little less than two tons per acre for the region. The value of vineyards varies from $100 to $400 per acre.

The crop for the past seven years calculated by The Grape Belt[100] from figures secured from the railroads are as follows:

“Season of 1900	8000 carloads
“Season of 1901	6669 carloads
“Season of 1902	5062 carloads
“Season of 1903	2952 carloads
“Season of 1904	7479 carloads
“Season of 1905	5362 carloads
“Season of 1906	5634 carloads”

The seeming decrease in carloads shipped as the years progress is far more than made up by the greater use of the fruit in local wineries and grape juice factories.

According to figures gathered in the preparation of this work about 90 per ct. of the grape acreage of the region is set to Concord followed by 3 per ct. of Niagara, 2 per ct. of Worden and 1 per ct. each for Moore Early and Catawba with the remaining 3 per ct. made up of a dozen or more sorts among which Delaware leads.

The shipping season in this district begins early in September and lasts well into November though late varieties, as Catawba, and small lots of Concord are held some weeks longer. Improved storage facilities are yearly lengthening the season.

Several systems of pruning and training are in vogue in the district but the majority of the vineyards are pruned and trained in a system peculiar to Chautauqua County. The posts are from six to eight feet in height, one to each three vines; two wires complete the trellis. The lower wire is from 28 to 32 inches from the ground and the second from 22 to 36 inches above the first, the distance being changed as the vine comes to maturity. The grapes are trained according to the upright system and the vines are renewed to short horizontal arms and but few canes are taken out each year; the trunk reaches only to the lower wire. The arms are loosely tied to the lower wire and the canes and bearing shoots to the wire above. Cultivation varies greatly but the best growers practice close cultivation and make use of fertilizers; the cover crop is growing in favor. Spraying is not very general as the region has been remarkably free from pests. The chief insects now encountered are the grape-vine fidia,[101] the flea-beetle,[102] the grape leaf-hopper[103] and the grape berry moth.[104] The several fungal diseases found in this region are, about in order of importance, black-rot, downy mildew, or “brown-rot,” powdery mildew, and anthracnose, or “bird’s-eye rot.”