ENGLE
1. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 192, 296, 299. 1893. 2. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:213. 1899. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909. 4. Mich. Sta. Sp. Bul. 44:39, 40. 1910.
Engol's Mammoth. 5. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 2:58. 1895. 6. Ibid. 6:43. 1899.
Engle is almost a counterpart of the well-known Late Crawford from which it differs essentially in earlier ripening fruit and more productive trees. Before Elberta became the vogue, Engle stood high in the esteem of commercial planters in Michigan and its culture was rapidly spreading into other states but the coming of Elberta stopped its career. There seems little doubt but that Engle is more productive than either of the two Crawfords, splendid peaches which fail because of unproductiveness, and for those who want the best it is as good as any of this group—quite too good to be lost. One of the faults of the two Crawfords is that the trees are tardy in coming in bearing. Engle is said to bear younger. On the Station grounds the fruit drops rather too readily but we do not find this fault mentioned by others.
Engle was grown some forty years ago by C. C. Engle, Paw Paw, Michigan, with a number of seedlings, several others of which proved valuable. Late Crawford may have been the seed parent but of this there can be no certainty. The American Pomological Society added Engle to its list of recommended fruits in 1909.
ENGLE
Tree very large, upright becoming spreading, tall, hardy, medium in productiveness; trunk thick, variable in smoothness; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown covered with light ash-gray; branchlets long, heavily tinged with olive-green, glossy, smooth, somewhat tortuous, inclined to rebranch, glabrous, with numerous small, conspicuous, raised lenticels.
Leaves six and one-fourth inches long, one and three-eighths inches wide, irregularly curled, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thin; upper surface rather dark, dull olive-green, rugose along the midrib; lower surface light grayish-green; apex narrow-acuminate; petiole three-eighths inch long, with one to four small, globose, greenish-yellow glands at the base of the leaf.
Flower-buds large and long, conical, plump, pubescent, free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers light pink at the center, darker red near the edges, one and one-eighth inches across; pedicels very short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube dull reddish-green, orange-colored within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval to slightly ovate, faintly and broadly crenate, tapering to claws with red base; filaments three-eighths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent at the ovary, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two inches long, two and seven-sixteenths inches wide, round-oval to cordate, becoming almost oblate in some specimens, bulged near the apex, compressed, with unequal sides; cavity abrupt to flaring; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex variable in shape; color greenish-yellow changing to orange-yellow, in parts overspread with a bright red blush, splashed with darker red; pubescence short, thick, fine; skin thin, tough, separates readily from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, stained with red near the pit, juicy, tender and melting, sweet or pleasantly subacid, mild; good in quality; stone free, one and five-sixteenths inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide ovate, bulged on one side, plump, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture very deeply grooved along the edges; dorsal suture grooved, often winged.