THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 223 



Flower-buds hardy, large, medium to long, conical or obtuse, very plump, strongly 

 pubescent, usually free; season of bloom early; flowers pale pink, one and three-fourths 

 inches across, usually in twos; pedicels very short, glabrous; calyx-tube dull reddish-green, 

 lemon-yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes very broad, obtuse, glabrous 

 within, pubescent without; petals round-ovate, tapering to short, narrow claws red at the 

 base; filaments one-half inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent at the base, 

 equal to the stamens in length. 



Fruit matures early; two and one-half inches long, two and three-eighths inches wide, 

 oblong-oval, often oblique, bulged at one side, compressed, with unequal sides; cavity 

 deep, narrow, abrupt; suture shallow, deepening toward the cavity; apex roundish, with 

 a small, mucronate tip; color creamy-white, blushed red, with a few stripes of darker red 

 intermingling; pubescence heavy, nearly tomentose; skin rather tough, separates from the 

 pulp; flesh white, very juicy, tender and melting, mild, sweet, sprightly; fair in quality; 

 stone semi-clinging, one and seven-sixteenths inches long, one inch wide, winged on both 

 sides, ovate, strongly bulged along one side, with short grooves on the surfaces; ventral 

 suture narrow, deeply grooved along the sides; dorsal suture grooved, winged. 



HALE EARLY 



I. Mag. Hort. 27:65, 66. 1861. 2. Am. Pom. .Soc. Cat. 78. 1862. 3. Card. Mon. 5:68, 69, 198, 

 277, 278. 1863. 4. Horticulturist 18:63, 64, 197. '98, 242, 243 fig., 244. 1863. 5. Downing Fr. Trees 

 Am. 615. 1869. 6. Horticulturist 27:23, 304. 1872. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909. 



Precoce de Hale. 8. Mas Lc Ffrg^r 7: 193, 194, fig. 95. 1866-73. 



Hale. 9. Am. Pom. .'ioc. Cat. :^:i. 1891. 10. .l/;c/!. .S/o. Bm/. 169:215. 1899. 



In the middle of the last century. Hale Early was considered the 

 best peach of its season for home and market. Even now it has several 

 characters to recommend it; as, large, vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive 

 trees, fruits handsome in color, uniform in size and shape, with flesh more 

 than ordinarily free from the stone for an early peach, fair quality for 

 the season and extreme earliness. The chief fault is that the peaches run 

 small in size, scarcely exceeding large marbles, which they resemble in 

 roundness. The variety must be grown in the best of peach-lands, heavily 

 thinned, and the trees severely pruned. The peaches, besides being small, 

 are very susceptible to brown-rot. Nowhere very commonly planted, the 

 variety is still widely distributed, a fact, in view of the competition with 

 many early peaches, which speaks well for a peach introduced more than 

 fifty years ago. It is interesting to note that Hale Early was introdu^^ed 

 into Europe many years ago and that European pomologists still speak 

 highly of it. 



Hale Early grew from a seed planted in 1850 by a German named 

 Moas at Randolph, Portage Covmty, Ohio. A few years later the attention 

 of a Mr. Hale, Summit County, Ohio, was called to the seedling and he. 



