In 1855 the Hon. Jacob Larrowe and Mr. Orlando Shephard planted small vineyards of Isabella and Catawba in Pleasant Valley near Hammondsport and were so successful that in 1858 their vineyards were greatly increased and others in the valley embarked in the business of vine-culture. Viticulture was now fairly started and the industry grew apace from 1858 onward. In 1860 two hundred acres of grapes were set in Pleasant Valley alone and elsewhere on Keuka Lake large plantings were made. Grapes brought from fifteen to thirty cents per pound and a bearing vineyard at this time was as good as a gold mine. Plantings were begun in the Yates County portion of the Keuka district in 1855 when Mr. W. W. Shirland set a small vineyard of Isabella in Benton township. There seem to be no records as to the first plantings about Seneca and Canandaigua Lakes but all available information indicates that plantings about these two lakes came in the spreading of the industry from Keuka Lake. E. A. McKay of Naples seems to have had a vineyard of some extent as early as 1848 from which he sold fruit. There must have been vineyards of considerable size about Avon in Livingston County in the early fifties; for Larrowe, Shephard and others obtained cuttings at this place in 1855 for their vineyards in Pleasant Valley. Who owned these Avon vineyards, and what their extent was, does not appear. The first commercial shipment of any considerable amount beyond the towns nearby was made in 1854 when Mr. J. W. Prentiss shipped a ton of Isabella packed in tubs to New York City. The tubs were made by cutting apple barrels in half and were packed half full when a thin board partition was put in after which the tub was filled and covered. The consignment reached the city in fair condition and brought fifteen cents per pound but a second ton shipped in the same way "broke" the market. John Mead of the town of Benton introduced the Concord in this region in 1861 and the same year Henry Rose of Penn Yan set the first Delaware to be planted commercially in the district. The Concord soon took the place of the Isabella but could not displace the Catawba as it did in the Chautauqua district. The Delaware grew in favor and rapidly assumed third place in the list of varieties about the three lakes, a position which it still maintains, though it is closely followed by the Niagara.