192 



THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



generally as a money-making peach. Those who recommend it say that 

 the trees are vigorous, heavy bearers and that the crop is uniform and 

 always fair, smooth and without culls. The crop matures in a short time, 

 ships well and is in demand in the markets either as a dessert peach or 

 for culinary purposes. On the Station grounds, Captain Ede comes up 

 to the reputation given it in all respects excepting productiveness — here 

 it is a shy bearer. The peaches, as the color-plate shows, are beautiful, 

 the flavor is subacid but rich, with a distinct smack of the almond. Captain 

 Ede ripens with Early Crawford, a week or ten days before Elberta. 

 The tree, as it grows here, can hardly be distinguished from that of Elberta. 

 We should unhesitatingly recommend Captain Ede to New York peacli- 

 growers, were it not for the fear that it does not accommodate itself to 

 a diversity of soils and climates. It does rather better farther south. 



Captain Ede originated in 1870 as a seedling in the door-yard of 

 Captain Henr}^ Ede, Cobden, Illinois. Later, it was introduced by George 

 Gould and Son, Villa Ridge, Illinois. The parentage of the variety is 

 unknown. By some, Chinese Cling is supposed to have been one of the 

 parents and others give the same credit to Honest John. The American 

 Pomological Society added Captain Ede to its fruit-list in 1909. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, not always productive; trunk thick; 

 branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown overspread with verj' light ash-gray; branchlets 

 slender, olive-green more or less overspread with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous 

 large or very small, inconspicuous lenticels. 



Leaves five and three-fourths inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, 

 oval to obovate-kmceolate ; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light grayish- 

 green; margin finely serrate, tipped with dark red glands; petiole one-fourth inch long, 

 with two to six, reniform, greenish-yellow glands medium in size and variable in position. 



Flower- buds large, long, oblong-conic, plump, usually appressed; blossoms open very 

 late; flowers three-fourths inch across, dark pink; pedicels short, glabrous, pale green; 

 calyx-tube dull, dotted reddish-green, orange-red within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx- 

 lobes short, broad, obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals roundish- 

 ovate, notched near the base, tapering to short, narrow, white claws; filaments one-fourth 

 inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent toward the base, equal to the 

 stamens in legth. 



Fruit matures in mid-season ; about two and one-fourth inches in diameter, roundish- 

 cordate to somewhat oval, very slightly compressed, with neatly equal halves, bulged 

 near the apex; cavity wide, abrupt or flaring, often tinged with red and with tender skin; 

 suture variable in depth, extending more than half-way around; apex roundish, with a 

 prolonged, recurved, mamelon tip; color orange-yellow, with specks and splashes of red, 

 blushed with darker red; jJubescence thick, short, variable in coarseness; skin tough, 



