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 These were superseded by the twelve-pound climax basket; the size of this basket was soon reduced to ten pounds, then to nine, then to eight.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.