IRON MOUNTAIN
1. Mich. Sta. Bul. 152:197, 200. 1898. 2. Ibid. 169:217. 1899. 3. Rural N. Y. 58:738 fig. 271. 1899. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909. 5. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 203. 1913.
Hardiness is the outstanding character which has brought Iron Mountain into prominence. The introducer and many growers claim extreme hardiness of wood and bud for the variety—others say that it is surpassed by Crosby, Wager and other varieties of their type. The trees on the Station grounds turned out not to be true to name so that we can offer no data as to hardiness. Iron Mountain is a very late, white-fleshed, freestone peach well adapted for extending the commercial limits for this fruit in regions where fall frosts hold off sufficiently long for the fruit to ripen. The tree-characters are reported by most growers as very satisfactory and the peaches serve very well for culinary purposes but are not sufficiently attractive for a dessert fruit though the quality is excellent. There seem to be two varieties, much alike in fruit, passing under this name; one is large-flowered, the other small-flowered. This variety might well be planted in New York for some markets; as, for example, near towns and cities where it is desirable to extend the local market as late as possible.
Iron Mountain seems to have originated in New Jersey about a quarter-century ago but nothing is known of its parentage or by whom grown. The variety was introduced by J. H. Lindley, Whitehouse, New Jersey. It was put on the fruit-list of the American Pomological Society in 1909.
IRON MOUNTAIN
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, not always productive; trunk thick; branches smooth, dark ash-gray mingled with reddish-brown; branchlets medium to slender, with internodes of medium length, greenish-brown, smooth, glabrous, with numerous small, raised lenticels.
Leaves six inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward and recurved, oval to obovate-lanceolate, medium in thickness, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light green, with a prominent midrib; margin glandular, finely serrate; petiole three-eighths inch long, with one to six reniform glands of medium size, usually on the petiole; flower-buds medium to small, conical, free; season of bloom late; flowers small.
Fruit matures very late; two and three-fourths inches long, two and five-eighths inches thick, oblong-oval, often bulged on one side, compressed; cavity contracted, below medium in depth, flaring; suture shallow, extending only to the tip; apex distinctly mucronate or roundish, sometimes tapering; color pale greenish or creamy-white, occasionally with a light blush; pubescence heavy; skin medium to thin, tender, adherent to the pulp; flesh white, stained brown next to the pit, juicy, tender, sweet, mild; quality good; stone semi-free one and five-eighths inches long, more than one inch wide, somewhat wedge-like at the base, obovate, plump, long-pointed at the apex, winged, with large, wide and deep grooves in the surfaces; ventral suture with wide, deep furrows; dorsal suture grooved deeply, winged.