288 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



under the name of Excelsior, and has also been called Hale's Hardy, because 

 Mr. Hale, a very prominent peach grower in Connecticut, first grew it exten- 

 sively. The name Excelsior, however, was found to be confusing, because there 

 was also a peach cultivated under the name Prince's Excelsior. The United 

 States Division of Pomology decided to give it the name of its original intro- 

 ducer, Mr. Crosby. 



Mr. VanDeman, of the United States Division of Pomology, describes it 

 as follows : Size, medmm, about two inches in diameter ; shape, round or 

 oblate, sometimes being compressed towards the apex ; cavity, medium ; suture, 

 moderately deep, and extending from the base to beyond the apex, often causing 

 the tip to be sunken ; color, bright yellow with crimson splashes and stripes, 

 very attractive ; skin, moderately thick, with short pubescence ; flesh, bright 

 yellow, red at the stone, juicy ; stone, small, blunt, parting readily from the flesh ; 

 flavor, mild sub-acid, rich ; quality, above medium ; season, the last week in 

 September in Massachusetts, ripening just before Crawford's Late. 



We wrote Mr. J. H. Hale, the famous peach grower of South Glastonbury, 

 Conn., regarding this peach, asking his opinion with reference to the correctness 

 of the colored plate we are using. He writes as follows : " Your plate of the 

 Crosby peach was made from extra selected specimens grown on young trees, 

 in a high state of cultivation, and so represents the greatest possibilities of this 

 variety, while the plate shown by Mr. VanDeman in his report was made from 

 average specimens, grown in sod on trees twelve or thirteen years old. Both 

 these specimens were grown in Northern Massachusetts, just on the border of 

 New Hampshire. The Crosby is an abundant bearer, and most of the trees I 

 have seen fruiting for some years past have been overloaded. The fruit runs of 

 a good even size, averaging about two to two-and-a-quarter inches in diameter. 

 It is the most attractive yellow peach I have ever seen, with small pit, and of 

 excellent quality ; still, it is not so large as the Crawford, and I do not think that 

 it would sell so well in the market as that variety when abundant. But, in my 

 opinion, the Crosby, on account of the hardiness of its fruit buds, will produce 

 full crops many years when there are no Crawfords or other peaches of that class. 

 I have a three-year-old orchard here of Mountain Rose, Crawford, Old Mixon, 

 Stump, not bearing this year or last, but two hundred trees of Crosby, in the 

 same lot, are full of fruit, as they were also last year, and they are only in their 

 second summer. We, who know the Crosby best in New ICngland, think that 

 in it we have a variety which can be depended upon to fruit at least four years 

 out of five. In fact, the trees in the States of Massachusetts and New liamp- 

 shire are now loaded with their tenth successive croj). Old orchards of assorted 

 varieties are fruiting well this season, and we expect to harvest ten or twelve 

 thousand bushels. The |)rices are high, as there is little to come from the south 

 to us." 



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