THE PEACHES OK NEW YORK 205 



stone semi-free to free, one and three-eighths inches long, one inch wide, oval, ijlumj), 

 tapering to a short, abrupt point, bulged near the apex, contracted toward the base, with 

 grooved, light-colored surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the sides, narrow, 

 winged; dorsal suture winged, groowd 



EARLY CRAWFORD 



I. Kenrick Am. Orcli. 184. 1841. 2. Hovcy Fr. .l»i. 1:29, 30, I'l. 1851. 3. Waugh Am. Peach 

 Orrh. JOI. 1913. 



Crawford's Early Melocotov. 4. Downing /•>. Trees Am. 490. 1845. 5. Mas Le Verier 7:45, 46, 

 fig. 21. 1 866-73. 



Cra-d'ford's Early. 6. Elliutt /■>. BooA- 272, 273. 1854. •;. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 2i\. 1856. %. Am. 

 Pom. Soi. Rpl. 42, 43. 1856. 9. Leroy Did. Pnni. 6:104 ^g-. lo.S- 1879. 10. FulUin Peach Cull. 

 192, 193. 1908. 



IVillermoz. II. Carriere Var. Pcchers 76, 77. 1867. 12. Pom. France 6: No. 10, PI. 10. 1869. 

 13. Lauchc Pent. Pom. VI: No. 22, PI. 1882. 14. Mathicu Nom. Pom. 418. 1889. 



Unproductiveness and uncertainty in bearing keep Early Crawford 

 from being the most commonly grown early, yellow-fleshed peach in 

 America. In its season, when well grown, it is unapproachable in quality 

 by any other peach and is scarcely equalled by any other of any season. 

 The peach has all of the characters that gratify the taste — richness of 

 flavor, pleasant aroma, tender flesh and abundant juice. Besides being 

 one of the very best in quality it is one of the handsomest peaches. 

 Unfortunately, this Station is one of the many places in which Early 

 Crawford is not at home and the accompanying illustration is far from 

 doing the variety justice in size, shape or color. At their best, the fruits 

 are larger, more rotund and more richly colored than shown in The Peaches 

 of New York. In soils to which it is well adapted the peach is large, 

 often very large, roundish-oblong, slightly compressed, distinguished by 

 its broad, deep cavity, rich red in the sun, splashed and mottled with 

 darker red, and golden yellow in the shade. The flesh is a beautiful, 

 marbled yellow, rayed with red at the pit and perfectly free from the 

 stone. The trees are all that could be desired in health, vigor, size and 

 shape but are unproductive and uncertain and tardy in bearing. Yet 

 with these fatdts Early Crawford, for at least a half-centur>% was the 

 leading market peach of its season giving way finally to white-fleshed sorts 

 of the Belle, Carman and Greensboro type. Fast passing from commer- 

 cial importance. Early Crawford ought long to be grown in home 

 plantations because of the beauty and unexcelled quality of the fruit. 



Early Crawford came into existence in the orchard of William Craw- 

 ford, Middletown, New Jersey, early in the Nineteenth Century. Its 

 merits were first set forth by William Kenrick in the American Orchardist 



