196 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



peaches are not only very good in the characters that make up quality — 

 tender flesh, juiciness, pleasant flavor — but there is a peculiar honeyed 

 sweetness possessed by few other peaches which gives the Champion 

 individuality. The color, barring a slight excess in yellow, is well shown 

 in the color-plate but the size as shown is small. The tree of Champion 

 is almost perfect from the ground up, few other varieties surpassing it in 

 height and girt and none, on the Station grounds at least, equalling it 

 in the quantity and the luxuriant green of its foliage. A Champion tree 

 is known by its foliage as far as the eye can distinguish color. As would 

 be expected from the tree-characters given, in soils to which it is suited, 

 Champion rejoices in vigor and health as do few other varieties. The 

 variety surpasses most of its orchard-associates in productiveness but the 

 peaches are inviting prey to brown-rot and the trees are sometimes 

 defoliated with leaf-curl so that, with its capriciousness as to soils, it has 

 grave faults as a commercial variety. Because of high quality of the 

 fruit and the beauty of the tree, Champion should have a conspicuous 

 place in the orchard of the amateur. 



Champion is a seedling of Oldmixon Free supposedly fertilized by 

 Early York. The original seed was planted about 1880 by I. G. Hubbard, 

 Nokomis, Illinois, and the variety was introduced by him and by the 

 Dayton Star Nurseries in 1890. In the early years of its dissemination 

 Champion was confused with an early, semi-cling variety which originated 

 in western Michigan and which was locally sold for a time imder the same 

 name. The American Pomological Society added Champion to its fruit-list 

 in 1897. 



Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, very productive; trunk thick; branches 

 stocky, sniooth, reddish-brown covered with ash-gray; branchlets thick, very long, with 

 short internodes, oHve-green overspread with dull red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous 

 large lenticels, inconspicuous except toward the base. 



Leaves five and one-fourth inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, 

 oval to obovate-lanceolate ; upper surface dark green, rugose along the midrib; lower surface 

 ^ayish-green ; margin finely serrate, tipped with dark red glands; petiole three-eighths 

 inclj long, with two to five small, globose, greenish-yellow glands variable in position. 



Flower-buds large, medium in length, plimip, conical, pubescent, free; blossoms 

 appear in mid-season; flowers pink, less than one inch across, well distributed; pedicels 

 short, glabrous, pale green; calyx-tube dark, mottled reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, 

 obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, broad, obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without, 

 slightly reflexed ; petals round-oval to ovate, tapering to narrow, short, white claws; filaments 

 three-eighths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent about the ovary, 

 equal to the stamens in length. 



