Leaves healthy, variable in size, green, very thick; lower surface of young leaves pale green shading into bronze on older leaves with little, if any, pubescence. Flowers, strongly self-fertile; upright stamens. Fruit ripens late. Clusters medium in size, sometimes shouldered, and of average compactness. Berries large, roundish to slightly oval, dull reddish-black covered with thin lilac or faint blue bloom, not very persistent, firm. Skin thick, tough, contains no pigment. Flesh moderately juicy, tough, nearly sweet at skin to decidedly acid at center, with no pronounced aroma, fair to good in quality. Seeds adhere to the pulp, large to medium, plump, broad to medium, intermediate in length, rather blunt.
CONCORD.
(Labrusca.)
1. Mag. Hort., 18:490, 522. 1852. 2. Ib., 19:524, 542. 1853. 3. Horticulturist, 9:124, 188, 236, 399, 515. 1854. 4. Mag. Hort., 20:63, fig., 431, 553. 1854. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1854. 6. Ib., 1858:233. 7. Grant, 1864:7, 12. 8. Gar. Mon., 11:39. 1869. 9. Mich. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1872:47. 10. Bush. Cat., 1883:83, 84, fig., 147. 11. Mo. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1891:335. 12. Meehan’s Mon., 4:47. 1894. 13. N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt., 17:528, 540, 543, 544, 548, 552. 1898. 14. Ev. Nat. Fruits, 1898:72. 15. Mo. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1900:360. 16. Traité gen. de vit., 6:178. 1903.
Bull’s Seedling (1).
The Concord is known by all. The most widely grown of the grapes of this continent, it also represents the dominant type of our native species and with its offspring, pure-bred and cross-bred, furnishes seventy-five per ct. or more of the grapes of eastern America. In New York, approximately seventy-five per ct. of all the grapes grown are Concords alone. The preeminently meritorious character of Concord, which has enabled it to take first place in American viticulture, is the elasticity of its constitution whereby it adapts itself to varying conditions; thus the Concord is grown with more or less profit in every grape-growing State in the Union and to an extent not possible with any other grape. It succeeds on a greater number of soils than any other variety. In the Chautauqua grape region there are six distinct types of soil upon which grapes are grown and the Concord is the leading grape on each of them.
A second character which commends Concord as a commercial variety is its high degree of fruitfulness, as it gives large crops year in and year out. Added to the above points of superiority are hardiness; ability to withstand the ravages of both diseases and insects; comparative earliness and therefore certainty of maturity in northern regions; fair size of bunch and berry, good color, and an abundance of bloom, making a most handsome grape. The Concord leaves out and blossoms somewhat late in the spring and does not therefore often suffer from spring frosts and the fruit is not easily injured by late frosts and hangs well on the vine.