2IO THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



Elberta, however, is not without faults and serious ones. The trees 

 are not as hardy in either wood or blossom as might be wished. In northern 

 regions peaches of the Crosby, Chili, Smock and Wager type stand winter 

 freezes and spring frosts much better. The blossoms open rather too 

 early in New York. The peaches also fall short in quality. They lack 

 the richness of the Crawfords and the sweetness of the white-fleshed Cham- 

 pion type. Moreover, the pronounced bitter tang, even when the peaches 

 are fully ripe, is disagreeable to some. Picked green and allowed to ripen 

 in the markets, Elberta is scarcely edible by those who know good peaches. 

 The stone is large but is usually wholly free from the flesh. With these 

 faults, the dominance of Elberta is not wholly desirable as growers have 

 a feeling of sufficiency with the one variety and consiimers are forced to 

 put up with a peach none too high in quality. Still, since no other variety 

 is so reliable for the trade, this, by the way, being about the only variety 

 suitable for export by reason of shipping qualities, Elberta promises long 

 to continue its commercial supremacy. 



Elberta was grown by Samuel H. Rumph, Marshall ville, Georgia, 

 from a seed of Chinese Cling planted in the fall of 1870. The Chinese 

 Cling tree stood near Early and Late Crawford trees and trees of Oldmixon 

 Free and Oldmixon Cling. Mr. Rumph believed that the Chinese Cling 

 blossom which produced Elberta was fertilized by pollen from Early 

 Crawford. The seedling was named Elberta in honor of Mr. Rumph 's 

 wife, Clara Elberta Rumph. An interesting coincidence connected with 

 the origin of Elberta is that another stone from the same Chinese Cling 

 tree was given to L. A. Rtrniph and from this grew Belle, the splendid 

 white-fleshed, freestone peach. Nurserymen and growers frequently pro- 

 duce strains of Elberta which they think superior to the older sort but 

 the several strains which have been tested on the grotmds of this Station 

 have not proved to differ a whit from the old variety. From the number 

 of so-called " Early Elbertas " and " Late Elbertas " it may be suspected 

 that occasionally Elberta, because of some local condition, ripens its fruit 

 prematurely, or that ripening may be delayed; when removed from the 

 particular local environment, ripening time seems to occiar normally. 

 Elberta was placed on the American Pomological Society's fruit-list in 1889. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, hardy, very productive; trunk 

 thick; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown intermingled with light ash-gray; branchlets 

 with tendency to rebranch, with long intemodes, olive-green lightly overspread with 

 dark red, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous lenticels variable in size. 



