1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1877:44. 2. Downing, 1881:166, app. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1881:34. 4. N. J. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1881:13. 5. Bush. Cat., 1883:96. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1883:26. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1885:103, 105. 8. Rural N. Y., 45:622, 653. 1886. 9. Kan. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1886:187. 10. Can. Hort., 11:287. 1888. 11. Mo. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1889:361, 373. 12. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 36:40. 1891. 13. Bush. Cat., 1894:121. 14. Mich. Sta. Bul., 169:170. 1899. 15. N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt., 18:395. 1899. 16. Can. Hort., 23:217. 1900.
Early Victor is especially worthy of notice because it is highest in quality of the very early black grapes. When one tastes this variety at the beginning of the grape season, he has no palate for Hartford, Champion, Ives, Janesville, or even Moore Early, and he will be conscious of defects in the flavor of many of the later grapes which are supposed to have high quality. Early Victor is especially pleasing to those who want a pure-flavored grape and object to the foxiness of our native varieties so marked in Hartford and Champion but almost wholly lacking in this variety. Were it but a few days earlier and bunch and berry a little larger and more attractive, Early Victor might be the grape par excellence for home and market to begin the grape season. The vines are hardy, healthy, vigorous, and productive, with growth and foliage greatly resembling Hartford, which is probably one of its parents, Delaware being the other. The bunches are small and compact and somewhat variable in shape; the berries are about the size and shape of those of Delaware. Its season is that of Moore Early and Hartford, or a little later, though, like many black grapes, it colors before it is ripe and is often picked much too green. Unfortunately the fruit is susceptible to black-rot and a little inclined to shrivel after ripening. Although introduced into American viticulture in 1881, Early Victor is still little known and deserves far more general recognition both by the amateur and the commercial grape-grower.
John Burr,[186] of Leavenworth, Kansas, originated Early Victor about 1871 and sent it out for testing in 1881. It was placed on the grape list of the American Pomological Society fruit catalog in 1883 and is still retained. Early Victor is said to be a seedling of Delaware pollinated by Hartford. This, however, is mere surmise, as nothing is known positively as to its parentage, and the statement was made frequently by the Kansas Horticultural Society, of which Burr was a member, that it was a seedling of Concord. It was introduced, probably about 1887, by Stayman & Black of Leavenworth.
Vine vigorous, healthy, hardy, productive. Canes long, numerous, rather slender, dark brown to slightly reddish-brown, surface pubescent; nodes enlarged, usually not flattened; internodes long to medium; diaphragm nearly thin; pith intermediate in size; shoots pubescent; tendrils continuous, of average length, bifid to sometimes trifid.
Leaf-buds of average size, short to medium, rather thick, often strongly compressed, nearly obtuse to conical, open in mid-season. Young leaves tinged lightly on upper and lower sides with rose-carmine. Leaves medium to above in size, rather thick; upper surface dark green, moderately smooth; lower surface nearly whitish, heavily pubescent; veins well defined; lobes three to five in number, terminal lobe acute; petiolar sinus intermediate in depth and width; basal sinus shallow and moderately wide when present; lateral sinus medium to above in depth, narrow to medium in width; teeth of average depth and width. Flowers nearly fertile to somewhat sterile, open in mid-season; stamens upright.