268 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



white, blushed with red; pubescence short, heavy; skin thick but tender, adherent to 

 the pulp; flesh white, translucent, veined, juicy, melting, sweet or mildly sprightly; good 

 in quality; stone nearly free, one and five-sixteenths inches long, one inch wide, oval, 

 plump, bulged on one side, light colored, short-pointed at the apex, with grooved sur- 

 faces; ventral suture very deeply grooved along the sides, narrow, winged; dorsal suture 

 grooved, more or less winged. 



ROCHESTER 



I. Heberle Bros. Cat. ii, 23. 1915. 2. .V. Y. Sla. Bui. 414:6. 7. P'- I9i6- 3- -V. Y. Slate Fr. 

 Gr. Assoc. Rpt. 18. 1916. 



Fruit-growers have long desired an early, yellovi', freestone peach 

 with suitable tree-characters for a commercial plantation. There are 

 several competitors for the place, the latest of which is Rochester, a member 

 of the Crawford group and in several respects a marked improvement on 

 the well-known Early Crawford. Rochester, in season, regarding the crop 

 as a whole, certainly precedes Early Crawford several days, ripening soon 

 after the middle of August. The introducers say that it is two weeks 

 earlier, a statement made possible by the fact that its season is very long, 

 a few specimens ripening extremely early. The great length of season of 

 this variety under some circumstances may be an asset, tinder others a 

 liability. As the color-plate shows, the peaches are large, yellow, with a 

 handsome over-color of mottled red, more rotund than either of the two 

 Crawfords or Elberta, making, all in all, a strikingly beautiful peach. 

 The flesh, too, meets all the requirements of a good peach — thick and 

 firm, marbled yellow, stained with red at the pit, juicy, rich, sweet and in 

 all respects fully up to the high standard of palatability found in peaches 

 of the Crawford group. While the variety must be classed as a freestone, 

 yet there is a slight clinging which may disappear under some conditions 

 and may be augmented tinder others. Rochester seems to be sufficiently 

 productive for a good commercial fruit but it remains to be seen how 

 generally it is adapted to soils and climates. Should its range of adapta- 

 bility be great, Rochester, by virtue of earliness, good quality and handsome 

 appearance, at once takes a high place in commercial peach-growing in 

 New York. 



Rochester came from a seed planted about 1900 on a farm owned by 

 a Mr. Wallen, near Rochester, New York. It was introduced by the 

 Heberle Brothers Nurseries, Brighton, New York, in 1912. 



Trees large, vigorous, upright-spreading, more upright than Elberta, productive; 

 trunk medium to thick, somewhat shaggy, branches stocky, smooth, ash-gray over red; 



