om from
frost. These factors have been discussed in a general way under the
climate of grape regions, but one needs to particularize a little more
closely to ascertain how they affect individual vineyards. Warmth,
sun, air and frostlessness are best secured by proximity to water,
high land and proper exposure.

_Proximity to water._

The favorable influences of water are well illustrated in the grape
regions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada. All of the grape
districts in these regions are bounded on one or more sides by water.
The equalizing effects of large bodies of water on temperature, warmer
winter and cooler summer, are so well known as scarcely to need
comment. Hardly less important than the effects of water on
temperature are the off-shore breezes of night and the in-shore
breezes of day which blow on large bodies of water. These keep the air
of the vineyard in constant motion and so prevent frosts in spring and
autumn, and also dry foliage and fruit so that spores of fungi have
difficulty in finding foothold. But if water brings fogs, dews and
humidity, as does the Pacific, grapes must be planted inland;
otherwise leaf, bloom and fruit are born in the blight of fungi. The
benign influences of water are felt in the eastern grape regions at
distances of one to four miles, seldom farther. These narrow belts
about the eastern waters are bounded on the landward side by high
bluffs over which many showers fail to pass and which protect the
belts below from heavy dews. Where the background of bluffs in these
regions sinks to level land, vineyards cease.

Vineyards are usually some distance above the water, the range in
altitude running from fifty to five hundred feet. Where the altitude
is much higher, immunity to frosts and winter freezing ceases, for
the reason that the atmosphere is rarer and drier so that heat
radiates rapidly from the land. As the height increases, also, the
revels of the wind play havoc with the vines. Yet, one is often
surprised to find good vineyards at the level of the lakes or, on the
other hand, crowning high hills. Altitude in grape-growing must,
therefore, be determined by experiment. We know very little of the
formation of the thermal belts on high land so favorable to the grape.

_The lay of the land._

We associate the grape with rugged land; as the vines on the banks of
the Rhine, the rolling lands of Burgundy, the slopes of Vesuvius and
Olympus, the high hills of Mad