l8o THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, unproductive; trunk stocky, smooth; 

 branches reddish-brown overlaid with Hght ash-gray; branchlets medium to long, olive- 

 green overlaid on the sunn\' side with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, large, 

 raised lenticels. 



I eaves six inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, oval-lanceolate, 

 thin, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light grayish-green; margin 

 finely serrate, tipped with dark red glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or 

 with one to four small, usually globose, greenish-yellow glands tipped with red, variable 

 in ijosition. 



Flower- buds oblong-conic, pubescent, usually free; blooming season early; flowers 

 pale pink, one and seven-sixteenths inches across, in well-distributed clusters; pedicels 

 very short, thick, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube dull green, light yellowish within, cam- 

 panulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, broad, acute, glabrous within, slightly pubescent 

 without; petals roundish, often broadly notched near the base, tapering to short, broad 

 claws marked with red; filaments nearly one-half inch long; pistil pubescent at the ovary, 

 equal to the stamens in length. 



Fruit matures very early; two and one-eighth inches long, two and one-fourth inches 

 wide, round, slightly compressed, with sides nearly equal; cavity deep, abrupt or slightly 

 flaring; suttire shallow; apex depressed, ending in a mucronate or small, mamelon, 

 recurved tip; color greenish-white becoming creamy-white, blushed and blotched with 

 dark red, mottled; pubescence short; skin separates readily from the pulp; flesh greenish- 

 white, juicy, stringy, sweet, very mild; fair to good in quality; stone clinging, one and 

 one-fourth inches long, five-eighths inch thick, oval, plump, faintly winged, abruptly 

 pointed at the apex, with slightly pitted surfaces and with a few grooves; ventral suture 

 deeply grooved along the sides, bulged; dorsal suture deeply furrowed, faintly winged. 



ALTON 



I. ///. Hort. Soc. Rpt. l8l. 1898. 2. Rural N. V. 60:726, 774. 1901. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat 3^. 

 1909. 4. N. Y. Slate Fr.Gr. Assoc. Rpt. 2\. 1912. 



Minnie. 5. Mich. Sla. Bui. 118:30. 1895. 6. Tex. .Sta. Bui. 39:813. 1896. 7. ///. Horl. Soc. 

 Rpt. 53. 1896. S. Mick. .Sta. Bui. j6g:220. 1899. 9. Budd-Hansen Im. //or/. .1/aw. 2:351, 352. 1903. 



Alton is everywhere held in high esteem as a ■ early mid-season, white- 

 fleshed, semi-free peach. It merits the esteem bestowed upon it by virtue 

 of large size, handsome appearance and high quality of the peaches and 

 hardiness and productiveness in the trees. It ripens a little earlier than 

 Champion, long the favorite white-fleshed peach of its season, does not rot 

 so readily when brown-rot is rife and hangs longer on the tree in good 

 condition. It is not, however, quite so choicely good in quality as 

 Champion, nor, on the Station grounds at least, are the trees quite as 

 productive. Other faults of Alton are that leaf-ctirl takes heavy toll on 

 unsprayed trees, the blossoms open so early as often to be caught by spring 

 frosts, and the peaches show great variation in size and shape and even in 



