SELLERS CLING 



STEVENS 



185 



popular as a commercial variety to open the 

 season, but for some reason peach-growers are 

 not pleased with it probably because of the 

 small size of the peaches. For a peach of its 

 season, Schumaker is remarkably free from 

 brown-rot. This variety originated as a seed- 

 ling with Michael Schumaker, Fairview, Penn- 

 sylvania, about 1870. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, becoming 

 drooping, open-topped, productive. Leaves C 1 /^ inches 

 long, 1 y z inches wide, obovate-lanceolate, leathery ; 

 margin finely serrate ; teeth tipped with reddish-brown 

 glands ; petiole Vz inch long, glandless or with 1-4 

 small, globose, reddish-brown glands. Flowers early ; 1 ^ 

 inches across, pink. Fruit very early ; 2 inches in diam- 

 eter, round, compressed, with unequal halves ; cavity 

 deep, flaring ; suture shallow ; apex ending in a re- 

 curved tip ; color creamy-white, heavily blushed and 

 often mottled with red ; pubescence short, thick ; skin 

 thin, tender, separates from the pulp when fully ripe ; 

 flesh white, very juicy, stringy, tender, sweet, aromatic, 

 highly flavored ; very good in quality ; stone clinging, 

 becoming semi-cling, oval, plump, inconspicuously 

 winged, with corrugated surfaces. 



SELLERS CLING. Sellers Orange Cling. 

 Canners in California recommend Sellers Cling 

 as one of the best midsummer varieties for 

 their trade. The variety finds favor with the 

 growers because of the great productiveness of 

 the trees. Although the product does not 

 sell for so high a price as that of two or three 

 other yellow-fleshed clingstones, the greater 

 productiveness of the trees makes up for the 

 difference in price. The peaches are handsome 

 in color, uniform in size, and ripen at a favor- 

 able period of the canning season. The va- 

 riety originated on the ranch of S. A. Sellers, 

 Contra Costa County, California, some time 

 previous to 1889. 



Tree large, very vigorous, upright-spreading, one of 

 the most productive of all peaches in California. Flow- 

 ers small, pink with darker pink about the edges, 

 appearing in midseason. Fruit late, very large, round- 

 oblong, somewhat flattened ; suture distinct ; apex 

 rounded with well-marked tip ; skin rich golden, some- 

 times with a faint tinge of red ; flesh deep golden from 

 skin to stone, very firm, moderately juicy, sweet and 

 rich ; quality good to very good ; pit of medium size, 

 plump at the point, flattened at the base, clinging 

 tenaciously. 



SMOCK. Smock Freestone. Though little 

 grown now, during the last half of the last 

 century Smock was one of the leading com- 

 mercial peaches of its season. The variety 

 has so little to recommend it, however, that 

 one must believe that reputation more than 

 merit kept up its popularity. The trees are 

 about all that could be desired, but the peaches 

 are of but mediocre quality and not attractive 

 in appearance, lacking in size and color, un- 

 gainly in shape, and having but little uniform- 

 ity in size, color, or shape. It is one of the 

 latest yellow-fleshed peaches, and is said to 

 be excellent for culinary purposes. With so 

 many better varieties of late yellow-fleshed, 

 freestone peaches, Smock is hardly worth 

 planting. It originated three-quarters of a 

 century or more ago with a Mr. Smock, Mid- 

 dletown, New Jersey. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, somewhat 

 drooping, dense-topped, tall, usually very productive. 

 Leaves G 1 ^ inches long, 1^ inches wide, flattened or 



curved downward, obovate-lanceolate, thick ; margin 

 finely serrate ; teeth tipped with dark red glands ; 

 petiole % inch long, with 1-5 small, globose or reniform 

 glands. Flowers midseason, 1 inch across, white at 

 the center of the petals, light or dark pink near the 

 edges, often in twos. Fruit very late ; 2 * inches in 

 diameter, oval, irregular, compressed, with halves un- 

 equal and somewhat angular ; cavity narrow, abrupt, 

 contracted around the sides ; suture a line, becoming 

 deeper toward the apex ; apex rounded, with a re- 

 curved, mucronate tip ; color greenish-yellow or some- 

 times orange-yellow, specked and mottled with dull, 

 dark red or sometimes faintly tinted with a bronze 

 blush ; pubescence very heavy, thick, fine ; skin thin, 

 tough, adherent to the pulp ; flesh yellow, faintly 

 tinged with red near the pit, tender, sprightly, pleasantly 

 flavored ; good in quality ; stone free, obovate, bulged 

 near the apex, flattened toward the base, with deeply 

 grooved surfaces. 



SNEED. Peebles. Bowers. Sneed was at 

 one time more or less grown in all the peach 

 regions of the United States as an early com- 

 mercial variety, but it has been very generally 

 discarded except in California and the south- 

 ern Atlantic states. In northern peach-growing 

 regions, the fruits run too small and are rather 

 too poor in quality, although it is probably 

 as well flavored as any other of the extra 

 early peaches. Southern growers find it a fairly 

 good early market sort, but surpassed by- 

 several others of its class. The variety origi- 

 nated about 1885 with Judge J. L. T. Sneed, 

 Nashville, Tennessee. 



Tree of medium size, rather weak in growth and but 

 moderately productive ; glands small, globose, red. 

 Flowers midseason, small, pink. Fruit very early, of 

 medium size, 2*4 inches in diameter, round-oval, slightly 

 compressed ; cavity medium in depth and width, abrupt ; 

 suture distinct ; apex depressed, with a distinct tip ; 

 color greenish-white, blushed and speckled with dark 

 red ; pubescence rather short but thick ; skin thin, ten- 

 der, parting from the flesh ; flesh greenish-white, juicy, 

 a little stringy, tender, melting, with a mild subacid, 

 pleasant flavor ; quality good to very good ; stone large, 

 clinging, oval, pointed. 



STEVENS. Fig. 178. Stevens Rareripe. 

 Stevens is a large, white and red, white-fleshed, 

 freestone peach. The variety is best known 

 as Stevens Rareripe, but the last part of the 

 name is inapt, for the true rareripes are early 



178. Stevens. (X%) 



ripening peaches, while with Stevens lateness 

 is one of its prime assets. In quality, the 

 fruits are extra good, the flesh-characters pleas- 

 ing in every respect. The flavor is a pleasant 

 mingling of sweet and sour not found in many 

 other peaches so late in the season. The ap- 

 pearance is as alluring as the taste, the fruits 



