An estimate of the present acreage, and its distribution, made in the preparation of this work, gives the standing of the district as follows by counties: Columbia, 865 acres; Dutchess, 448 acres; Orange, 865 acres; Ulster, 4021 acres; total, 6199 acres. Beside the above there are, of course, some scattering vineyards. There are only two or three wine-cellars in the district and probably 95 per ct. of the product of the vineyards is sold for table grapes or to those who make wine in small quantities. The grape lands of the Hudson River Valley are found very largely in the geological division known as the Taconic Province.[111] This province is a broad valley which extends from Pennsylvania across New Jersey, taking in Orange and parts of Ulster and Dutchess and Columbia Counties, then passing out of the State. The rocks in this geological division are shales, slates, schists, and limestones; and the soil is derived from these rocks. The grape lands, for most part, are those in which there is much shale or slate and in more or less coarse fragments, the finer particles being clay or gravelly loams. The district is more or less hilly, some of the vineyards being in valleys of a few acres extent, others in broad, gently undulating plains and still others on comparatively steep hillsides. The climate of the Hudson Valley changes rapidly as one goes up the River because of the diversity of its physical features and the wide variety of atmospheric influences to which it is subject. In the part of the Valley in which grapes are grown the summer temperature is high owing to the position between ranges of mountains and to the southerly winds which prevail at this season. In the winter the winds are northerly and the temperature is often low making the culture of tender grapes hazardous. The influence of the river, really a broad estuary in the grape regions, at all seasons is most favorable for fruit-growing. The lowlands of the Hudson Valley receive a somewhat small amount of rainfall as compared with the rest of New York because when moisture is being carried inland from the Atlantic it is largely precipitated by the mountains and highlands of New England. This is favorable to grape-growing. Another desirable feature of the rainfall of this Valley is that the maximum summer downfall is in July whereas in many parts of the State it is in September or October. This relatively light rainfall in the maturing months is more marked in this than in any other of the grape districts of the State.