🏘️ Croton Local History
Blog posts, articles, and community histories by local historians
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crotonhistory.org
berries are fully formed, a thorough pruning takes place. Every extra shoot, besides many hundreds of young bunches of fruit, are lopped off, leaving the whole strength of the vine to transfuse the remaining clusters. At the present season of the
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year, or earlier, when the crop is in full perfection, men accustomed to the cultivation of the grape in Europe are employed to garner it. The bunches are carefully supported while the pruning-knife does its work, and the rich masses are carried by
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huge basket loads into the “fruit house,” where woman's more delicate touch is brought to bear in culling every defective berry from each cluster, and placing them one after another in layers between light wood slats, with which the receiving-box is
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supplied. This box is then stored away for preservation till the market demand shall reach it. Baskets for ready use are also at hand, provided with wooden lids, which serve to transport the fruit to the city to supply the immediate demand of
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fruiterers, grocers, &c., &c. Another trade card for the Underhill vineyards, showing the wine vaults which still exist—though much neglected—on Croton Point. The transportation is always by means of steamboat, the jarring of railroad being
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considered damaging to the mellow fruit. Beside this immense supply to the fruit market of New-York City and vicinity, there are hundreds and hundreds of bushels made into wine, and stored away in casks containing 800 gallons each. These occupy a row
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of hillside cellars, or vaults, arched, commodious and cool, with every conceivable adaptation to their use. In one of these cellars the wine press is situated. It is a disappointingly small affair, but one has to remember the slowness and gentleness
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with which it acts upon its quantum of grapes, and with what perfection it expresses their delicate virtues. The work is not hurried, and the pressure upon the mash is cautiously regulated. Perhaps this accounts for there being no skin flavor nor
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indefinably gross taste about the several varieties of Croton Point wine. The great casks are fed by hose running from the vat, and after age has laid his seal of excellence upon them the contents are drawn off in bottles and garnered in the great
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cellars below the general depot in Astor-place. The great casks and lesser barrels employed are all the work of home laborers; all the mechanical appliances of the place are from the workshops upon the grounds. Coopers, blacksmiths, carpenters, &c.,
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are constantly employed. Ground Mole Dogs A trial to the spirit of wine growers is the ground mole. For the last twenty years it has been an increasing and much neglected evil all over the country. In Germany and other old countries of Europe, men
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are regularly elected whose business it is to exterminate this nuisance. They have numerous traps wherewith to make their raids, effectual; but Dr. Underhill having no such resource, and being, withal, a bit of a Yankee, has trained a band of little
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dogs, who let daylight in upon these stealthy borrowers in an entirely irresistible manner. The Plum-Tree Lake These grounds of Croton Point were, naturally, largely composed of mineral substances; consisting principally of fine granite, silex,
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oyster shells, &c., &c., combined with which was very little of vegetable matter. To supply this ingredient large alluvial deposits have been removed from near the mouth of the Croton River, leaving an excavation which has been filled to the forming
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of a beautiful lake, into which, by a sluice way, the choicest fish, as yellow and Croton-striped bass, white perch and sunfish make their way and are easily caught. This tiny detail from an 1867 hand-colored map of the Hudson River, produced by the
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United States Coast Survey, shows what is most likely the “Plum Tree Lake” described in this article. The main feature of this lake is, however, its complete border of plum trees, so planted as to hang directly out over the water. This plan is the
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result of experiment and conclusion arrived at by the Doctor, that the insect known as the “curculio,” 2 whose ravages have defeated the utmost care of plum-growers, will not sting the fruit that hangs over water. The plums, when fully ripe, are
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gathered in boats that moor immediately under the branches. A very large crop has been gathered here at times when an utter failure has marked the country elsewhere. A nectarine pond is commenced upon the same principle. Beside the almost illimitable
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variety of less important fruits, the monotony of the vineyards is relieved by orchards of Newtown pippins, the rich apple quince, pears, &c., &c. As for mammoth pumpkins—seedlings of other climes, both tropic and temperate—it is not consistent here
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to speak; but a visit to a Hudson River vineyard, with all its glorious resources of hill-side, valley, river, and mountain view, is something strangers from afar take delight in accomplishing, and our own citizens must be proud to enjoy.” 3 La Belle
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Riviere (the Beautiful River) was a 19th century name for the Ohio River, which had become a grape-growing area when this article was written. ↩ Plum curculio is a major insect pest of apple, plum, apricot and cherry, and a minor pest of pear and
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peach. See the University of Maine Cooperative Extension website . ↩ This letter was anonymously attributed to “R * * * * *” ↩ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens
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in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Published October 29,
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2013
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On Halloween, in 1922, the world-famous magician Harry Houdini gave what he called a “pseudo séance” in the Harmon home of his friend, journalist and social reformer Sophie Irene Loeb. He used the word “pseudo” when he recalled the incident in his
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book Magician Among Spirits , because he was famous not only for astounding feats of magic, but also for debunking the spiritualists, mediums and seers who used tricks to fool credulous people into believing they could actually communicate with the
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dead. “Gladly would I embrace Spiritualism, if it could prove its claims,” he wrote in the forward, “but I’m not willing to be deluded by the fraudulent impositions of so-called psychics, or accept as sacred reality any of the evidence that has been
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placed before me thus far.” 1 During his later years Houdini would occasionally give séances for the edification of friends. “The effects he would produce in the course of an evening . . . would make the ordinary mediumistic phenomena seem quite
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childish. Spectators would be awed, in spite of repeated assurances from Houdini that he was merely tricking them.” 2 At Loeb’s house the séance included two slates, which were examined by the guests before the lights were dimmed. “I asked if the
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Spirits would manifest,” wrote Houdini, “and when the slates were opened there was a message containing a code word. Miss Loeb was astounded, for the message, signed by Jack London, contained a code word which she claimed no one in the whole world
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