HEATH FREE
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909. 2. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 203. 1913.
Kenrick Heath. 3. Prince Treat. Hort. 17. 1828. 4. Prince Pom. Man. 2:30, 31. 1832. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 479. 1845. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 78. 1862. 7. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:348. 1903.
Heath. 8. Kenrick Am. Orch. 226, 227. 1832.
Heath Free is now rarely planted, being replaced by better sorts—in fact it was out of date a quarter-century ago when the American Pomological Society dropped it from its fruit-list. We can see no justification of the Society's action in restoring the variety to its list ten years later. The tree-characters of Heath Free seem to be, in the main, very good but the peaches are not at all attractive in appearance and none too good in quality—at best it is but a culinary sort. Possibly it is worth growing under some conditions as a late, white-fleshed peach.
Heath Free is another old variety, a native of New England. Kenrick, one of the first American pomologists, received the variety from General Heath, Roxbury, Massachusetts, early in the Nineteenth Century. Later, Kenrick sent it to Prince at Flushing, New York, who is credited with having distributed it. The variety should not be confused with Heath Cling. Ripening at the latter end of the peach-season, the term "Late" is often attached to the name. In 1862 the American Pomological Society put this peach on its fruit-list under the name Kenrick Heath but dropped it from the list in 1899. Ten years later, 1909, the variety was replaced in the Society's catalog as Heath Free.
HEATH FREE
Tree very large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, unproductive; trunk thick, somewhat shaggy; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown covered with very light ash-gray; branchlets long, with many short, spur-like branches near the tips, with internodes dark red intermingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous lenticels, raised near the base and tip.
Leaves seven and one-eighth inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, folded upward, recurved slightly, long-oval to obovate-lanceolate, rather thin; upper surface dark green, smooth becoming rugose near the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, with reddish-brown glands; petiole one-half inch long, with two to five reniform, reddish-brown glands usually on the petiole.
Flower-buds half-hardy, conical or pointed, very pubescent, free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers dark pink along the margins of the petals changing to white toward their centers, well distributed; pedicels short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green, yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, narrow, acute to obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals small, narrow-oval, often broadly notched near the base, tapering to short, broad claws red at the base; filaments one-fourth inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent at the base, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in late mid-season; two and one-eighth inches long, two and one-fourth inches thick, roundish-oval to oblong-oval, often strongly compressed, with halves nearly equal; cavity medium to shallow, wide, flaring, contracted along the sides, with tender skin; suture shallow; apex roundish, with a depressed, mucronate tip; color creamy-white, blushed or mottled with red, with splashes of deeper red; pubescence rather coarse, thick; skin thick, tough, adherent to the pulp; flesh white, bronzed at the pit, juicy, coarse, firm but tender, mild subacid with some astringency; good in quality; stone free, one and three-eighths inches long, one inch wide, flattened near the base, oval, with long grooves deeply sunken in the surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the edges, wide; dorsal suture grooved, faintly winged.