The first plantings made about Keuka Lake, now called the "Rhine of
America", were made by the Rev. William Bostwick at Hammondsport about
1830. He grew the Catawba and Isabella in a small way in his garden and
for years was the only grape-grower in this part of New York. The
commercial industry in this region was not started until 1853 when
Andrew Reisinger, a German vintner, planted two acres of Isabellas and
Catawbas at Harmonyville in the town of Pulteney. From this start
viticulture in the Keuka region grew apace and there must have been four
or five hundred acres of grapes planted when Erskine's report was made
in 1859. The fact that the region was not mentioned in this report may
be accounted for by assuming that Erskine's figures came from men
engaged in making wine and at this time wine was not made in large
quantities in the Keuka district.
There had been experimental vineyards about New York City and along the
Hudson for a century before the time of which we are writing, but these,
as we have seen, being largely of foreign grapes, came to naught.
Probably native grapes were first planted there in a commercial way by
the French Huguenots who settled in Ulster and Orange Counties. At any
rate there is record of a vineyard planted by a Frenchman, John Jacques,
near Washingtonville in 1837. The varieties were Isabella and Catawba
and there were, all told, about half an acre. It is interesting to note
that this vineyard is still producing grapes and that some of the vines
are as vigorous as in their first maturity. Wine-making as an industry
has existed in this region since the vineyard of 1837 came into bearing
but it was not until several years later that table grapes were grown
for the market. In 1859 there must have been two or three hundred acres
of grapes in commercial vineyards in the country adjacent to the Hudson.
Adding five hundred acres from New York to the 6500 reported for the
United States by Erskine in 1859 we have 7000 acres for the whole
country--a small estimate, for several other states known to have
considerable acreages of commercial vineyards were not taken into
account in Erskine's survey.
Before passing to a further consideration of grape statistics we must
note two important events for American viticulture which took place just
previous to the survey which we have been discussing. One of these
brought about a revolution,--almost brought into existence commercial
grape-growing; the other stimulated and laid the foundation of
grape-breeding in this country. The first was the introduction of the
Concord grape; the second was the production of hybrids between the
European and the native grapes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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