CHAIRS
1. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:209. 1899. 2. Rural N. Y. 59:642 fig. 236. 1900. 3. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:340. 1903.
Chairs' Choice. 4. N. C. Sta. Rpt. 11:108. 1889. 5. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 200. 1913.
Chair's Choice. 6. Col. O. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 151. 1893. 7. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 166. 1895. 8. Ibid. 26. 1899.
Chair Choice. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 44. 1891.
Chairs is a select fruit in the Crawford group, in its turn the most select of the several groups of peaches. In quality Chairs is unapproachable by varieties outside of its own family and is not surpassed by any within its group. The variety was at one time a standard late, yellow-fleshed, freestone, market peach competing in popularity with Late Crawford over which it often held ascendency because less subject to brown-rot. The coming of the showier and more productive but less well-flavored varieties of the Elberta type has driven the Crawford group from the markets and Chairs is now known only in collections where it will long be treasured for its delectable quality. Unproductiveness and capriciousness in soil and climate, faults of all Crawford-like peaches, are marked in Chairs. The fruits are usually larger than the specimens shown in the accompanying illustration.
Chairs originated about 1880 in the orchard of Franklin Chairs, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. First called Chairs' Choice, the apostrophe was dropped in 1891 by the American Pomological Society and still later the same organization shortened the name to Chairs. Its horticultural value was early appreciated by all pomologists and it has long been a prime favorite.
CHAIRS
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, unproductive; trunk stocky; branches thick, smooth, reddish-brown covered with light ash-gray; branchlets inclined to rebranch, short, with long internodes, olive-green overlaid with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous large and small, raised lenticels.
Leaves five and three-fourths inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thin; upper surface dark green, smooth or somewhat rugose; lower surface light grayish-green; margin coarsely serrate, often in two series, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole one-fourth inch long, with two to six small, globose, greenish-yellow glands variable in position.
Flower-buds large, oblong-obtuse, very plump, usually free; season of bloom late; flowers dark pink fading toward the whitish centers, three-fourths inch across; pedicels short, glabrous, pale green; calyx-tube dull, dotted reddish-green, orange-red within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval or ovate, nearly entire, often notched near the base, tapering to claws of medium width, white at the base; filaments one-fourth inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent near the ovary, usually longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in late mid-season; two and three-fourths inches long, two and seven-eighths inches thick, roundish-oval, irregular, bulged beak-like along one side toward the apex, compressed, with unequal halves; cavity deep, wide, abrupt or flaring; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex and extending slightly beyond; apex roundish, with a mucronate or small, recurved, mamelon tip; color golden-yellow, blushed and splashed with dull red; pubescence short, fine; skin thin, tough, free; flesh yellow, faintly stained with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, tender, subacid or sprightly, pleasantly flavored; very good in quality; stone free, one and three-fourths inches long, one and three-eighths inches wide, large, broadly oval, bulged along one side, plump, with surfaces deeply pitted and with short grooves; ventral suture wide, deeply furrowed along the sides, winged; dorsal suture a deep, wide groove inclined to wing.