268 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



wliite, 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. A". Y. Sla. Bid. 414:6, 7, PI. 1916. 3. N. Y. Stale Ft. 

 Gr. Assoc. Rpt. 18. igi6. 



Fruit-growers have long desired an early, yellow, 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, under 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 fuU}^ 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 under 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; 

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



