Bullitt
While it is from the species to which Taylor belongs that we must look for our hardiest vines, nevertheless this grape and its offspring, although not tender to cold, do best in southern regions, as they require a long warm summer to mature properly. The quality of the fruit of Taylor is fair to good, the flavor being sweet, pure, delicate and spicy and the flesh tender and juicy; but the bunches are small and the flowers are infertile so that the berries do not set well, making very imperfect and unsightly clusters. The skin is such, also, that it cracks badly, a defect seemingly transmitted to many of the seedlings of the variety. The vine is strong, healthy, hardy but not very productive. The original vine of Taylor was a wild seedling found in the early part of the last century on the Cumberland Mountains near the Kentucky-Tennessee line by a Mr. Cobb.
Vine vigorous to rank, healthy, hardy, variable in productiveness. Leaves small, attractive in color, smooth. Flowers bloom early; stamens reflexed.
Fruit ripens about two weeks before Isabella. Clusters small to medium, shouldered, loose or moderately compact. Berries small to medium, roundish, pale greenish-white, sometimes tinged with amber; skin very thin; pulp sweet, spicy; fair to good in quality.
Triumph
(Labrusca, Vinifera)
When quality, color, shape and size of bunch and berry are considered, Triumph ([Plate XXVIII]) is one of the finest dessert grapes of America. At its best, it is a magnificent bunch of golden grapes of highest quality, esteemed even in southern Europe where it must compete with the best of the Viniferas. In America, however, its commercial importance is curtailed by the fact that the fruit requires a long season for proper development. Triumph has, in general, the vine characters of the Labrusca parent, Concord, especially its habit of growth, vigor, productiveness and foliage characters, falling short in hardiness, resistance to fungal diseases and earliness of fruit, the fruit maturing with or a little later than Catawba. While the vine characters of Triumph are those of Labrusca, there is scarcely a suggestion of the coarseness, or of the foxy odor and taste of Labrusca, and the objectionable seeds, pulp and skin of the native grape give way to the far less objectionable structures of Vinifera. The flesh is tender and melting and the flavor rich, sweet, vinous, pure and delicate. The skins of the berries under unfavorable conditions crack badly, the variety, therefore, neither shipping nor keeping well. Triumph was grown soon after the Civil War by George W. Campbell, Delaware, Ohio, from seed of Concord fertilized by Chasselas Musque.
Vine vigorous. Canes long, dark brown with much bloom; nodes enlarged; tendrils intermittent, long, trifid, sometimes bifid. Leaves large; upper surface light green, dull, rugose; lower surface grayish-white, pubescent; leaf usually not lobed with terminus obtuse; petiolar sinus deep, narrow, often closed and overlapping; basal sinus absent; lateral sinus shallow and narrow when present; teeth deep, wide. Flowers self-fertile, late; stamens upright.
Fruit very late. Clusters very large, long, broad, cylindrical, sometimes single-shouldered, compact; pedicel slender, smooth; brush short, yellowish-green. Berries medium in size, oval, golden yellow, glossy with heavy bloom, persistent, firm; skin thin, inclined to crack, adherent, without pigment, slightly astringent; flesh light green, translucent, juicy, fine-grained, tender, vinous; good to very good. Seeds free, one to five, small, brown.