after sundown, so that the work of fructification goes on silently by night as by day.[1]
A few words as to the methods of cultivation that obtain in the Lake Keuka district. The vines are set from six to eight feet apart, and are trained to run on trellises. Three lines of wire are stretched from stakes, which are about eight feet distant from each other. The vines begin bearing in the third year, and the yield increases until the fifth and sixth years, when a vineyard is said to be in full bearing. The life of a vineyard is often three score and ten years, so that with good care and attention the children may reap from the vines their fathers planted. The average yield is about two tons of Catawba grapes to the acre, while the Concords will often go four tons to the acre.
In the fourth year the vine, if it has made good growth, is trimmed with two arms. The method of training is known as the "horizontal arm and spur system." By this system two main horizontal branches, or canes, are trained permanently to the lower wires—one to the right, another to the left. The upright shoots, that grow from the two main arms each season, are cut back each fall or winter to upright "spurs." The strongest new shoots that spring from these spurs in the spring are left for the bearing wood of that season, and this new cane is headed back to the top wire of the trellis. A strong vine will carry four shoots on each arm, or eight in all, care being taken not to overload the vine.
The method of pruning is known to growers as the thorough renewal system. When the spurs on the two main arms become overgrown or rank, they are renewed from new shoots, which spring from the arm, or near the base of the vine. Sometimes the arm itself is renewed from the head of the vine, or from a point near the ground. Summer pruning consists in thinning the vines here and there, and cutting off damaged clusters and imperfect berries.
As soon as the frost is out of the ground the grower goes through his vineyard to see if it has wintered well—that is, if post, wires, and vines are in good shape. A few weeks later, the canes are tied by willow bands to the lower wire. During May and June the vineyard is plowed and the roots grubbed. The first
- ↑ The peculiar climatic and other natural advantages of the Lake Keuka region are summed up by William Saunders, Government Superintendent of Gardens and Grounds, as follows: "Here the Catawba and other late grapes mature and reach remarkable perfection, taking the latitude into consideration. These vineyards are mostly on the hillsides extending for several hundred feet above the valley and surface of Keuka Lake. The soil is a drift formation, and the surface is thickly covered with loose shale. The marked adaptability of this locality for grape culture may be attributed to its elevation and nature of the soil."—(Report of Secretary of Agriculture for 1889, p. 113.)
