PEACH VARIETIES 263 



haps the best white-fleshed peach of its sea- 

 son, ripening a month before Elberta. The 

 tree adapts itself to almost any condition and 

 produces reliable crops of large and hand- 

 some fruit. The peaches ship better than do 

 many other white varieties and retain their 

 quality for a considerable time. Brown rot 

 seems to make but little impression on the 

 fruit, although other sorts in the same orchard 

 may be ruined by it. 



Champion 



In The Peaches of New York, Hedrick makes 

 the statement that, "Champion is the white- 

 fleshed peach par excellence in quality — 

 rightly used as the standard to gauge the 

 quality of all other white-fleshed peaches.' ' 

 He may be right, but if he is then I never saw 

 any Champion peaches. We had a large 

 block one time that was planted for that vari- 

 ety, but they did not equal in quality any one of 

 several other white sorts. The peach as we grew 

 it was a small, handsome freestone, better than 

 the average in quality but not so good as Car- 

 man, Alton or Captain Ede. It had a strong 

 tendency to overbear, and the peaches were 

 so subject to brown rot that it was almost 

 impossible to ripen them. They would hang 

 on the tree in perfect condition up to the time 

 when they were ready to ship, then the whole 



