A cross between the North Caucasus peach and Eclipse. 



Hampshire Horticultural Farm the 

 hardiest of ordinary varieties such 

 as Oriole, Cumberland, and Eclipse 

 will mature a satisfactory crop in 

 about half the years. In other years, 

 they produce little or nothing. One 

 mile distant from the University 

 Farm, at the village of Durham, 

 peach blossom buds rarely live 

 through the winter and a crop is an 

 infrequent occurrence; hence, this 

 locality is excellent for doing peach 

 breeding work as it is necessary to 

 detect the seedlings which have 

 greater hardiness. 



During the winter of 1943-44. re- 

 ports were received that plant in 

 troductions from the North Caucasus 

 region had proved unusually hardy 

 at the United States Plant Intro- 

 duction Station at Glenn Dale, Md. 

 Immediate arrangeinents were made 

 to have pollen from several of the 

 North Caucasus seedlings sent by 

 mail to Durham, when the trees 

 bloomed in Maryland. The pollen 

 from these seedlings was stored in a 

 dessicator over calcium chloride 

 under refrigeration, and was used 



on several of the hardiest peach var- 

 ieties. Crosses were made with 

 Oriole, Eclipse, Cumberland, and 

 Vedette. These seeds were stratified, 

 were planted indoors in the spring of 

 1945, and were set in the field when 

 the weather permitted. They made 

 a satisfactory growth in 1945 and 

 J946. In the spring of 1947, these 

 crossed trees bloomed profusely and 

 most of them set a good crop of 

 peaches. A few backcrosses were 

 also made with Eclipse and Oriole. 

 Another heavy crop of fruit was pro- 

 duced in 1948. Thus, two crops 

 were produced on trees within their 

 first four years from seed. In 1948, 

 several hundred seedlings of the F2 

 generation produced trees that made 

 a satisfactory growth. About two- 

 thirds of them have been eliminated 

 at the end of the first season's growth 

 because, by that time, it was possible 

 to determine by leaf-vein color that 

 the fruit they were destined to bear 

 would be white, an undesirable char- 

 acteristic. Space was thus made in 

 which more seedlings were planted 

 in 1949. Observations made on 



