THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 273 



wide, round-cordate, bulged near the apex, compressed, with unequal halves; cavity deep, 

 abrupt, often splashed with red; suture shallow, o£ten extending beyond the tip; apex 

 usually a small, elongated point; color greenish-yellow, usually with a brownish-red 

 blush splashed dark red; pubescence short, thick, fine; skin thin, tough, adherent to the 

 pulp; flesh golden- yellow, faintly tinged with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, tender, 

 becomes dry with age, sweet, pleasantly flavored, aromatic; good to very good in quality; 

 .stone free, one and one-half inches long, one and one-sixteenth inches wide, oval to 

 roundish-oval, very plump, pointed at the base, with large pits and short grooves in the 

 surfaces; ventral suture narrow, deeply furrowed along the edges; dorsal suture winged, 

 a narrow groove. 



SCHUMAKER 



I. Card. Mon. 22:276. 1880. 2. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 155. 1880. 3. Card. Man. 25:111 

 fig. 1883. 4. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 314, 315. 1889. 5. R. I. Sta. But. 7:41. 1890. 6. Budd-Hansen 

 Am. Hort. Man. 2:356. 1903. 



Shoemaker's Seedling. 7. Cult. & Count. Gent. 41:631. 1876. 



Schumaker, now grown only in western New York and Pennsylvania, 

 for a long time was described as the earliest of the white-fleshed, clingstone 

 peaches. There are other peaches as early but, on the Station grounds, 

 this is the best flavored of the early peaches. Moreover, when fully ripe 

 it is almost a freestone. It is a handsome peach in color and shape but 

 the fruits are too small though this can be remedied in part by thinning. 

 The trees are large, hardy, vigorous and productive to a fault. With all of 

 these good qualities, the wonder is that Schumaker is not more 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. 

 Nttrserymen often substitute Alexander for this variety and vice versa. 



This variety originated as a seedling with Michael Schumaker, Fair- 

 view, Erie County, Pennsylvania. Its parentage is unknown. It fnoited 

 for the first time in 1877 and was for a few years grown commercially but 

 its popularity has long been on the wane. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, becoming drooping, open-topped, productive; 

 trunk thick, smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown tinged with hght ash-gray; 

 branchlets long, pinkish-red with but a trace of green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with 

 large, conspicuous, raised lenticels. 



Leaves six and one-half inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, variable in 

 position, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dull, dark green, smooth; 

 lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; 

 petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, glandless or with one to four smaU, globose, reddish- 

 brown glands variable in position. 



