LATE CRAWFORD
1. Mas Le Verger 7:231, 232, fig. 114. 1866-73. 2. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 204. 1913.
Crawford's Superb Malacatune. 3. Kenrick Am. Orch. 191, 192. 1841.
Crawford's Late Melocoton. 4. Horticulturist 1:12. 1846-47. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 491. 1845. 6. Cole Am. Fr. Book 197. 1849.
Crawford's Late. 7. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Gr. 51. 1848. 8. Hovey Fr. Am. 2:9, 10, Pl. 1851. 9. Elliott Fr. Book 273. 1854. 10. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 43. 1856. 11. Fulton Peach Cult. 194. 1908.
Late Crawford is at the head of the Crawford family, long dominant among the several groups of American peaches and not yet equalled by any other yellow-fleshed peaches in quality. Late Crawford, a quarter-century ago, began to give way to Elberta because of the greater productiveness of the Elberta tree and the showier Elberta fruits and now, though widely distributed, is nowhere largely planted and seems destined to pass out of cultivation as a peach of commerce. Unproductiveness and tardiness in coming in bearing are the faults on account of which Late Crawford is failing. Itself adapted to a wide range of soil and climatic condition, Late Crawford, through the recurring variations from seed, has made the Crawford family the most cosmopolitan of the several distinct races of American peaches. Of all the family it is most virile, more than a score of its offspring being described in The Peaches of New York.
Compared with other Crawford-like peaches, Late Crawford is possibly the best in fruit-characters, the peaches being unsurpassed in appearance and scarcely equalled in texture of flesh and richness of flavor. The peaches, too, are more shapely and more uniform in shape than fruits of other Crawford varieties, being rounder, trimmer in contour and having a suture that scarcely mars the symmetry of the peach. In color, Late Crawford runs the whole gamut of soft tints of red and yellow that make Melocotons and Crawfords the most beautiful of all peaches. The trees are as vigorous, hardy, healthy and as little susceptible to disease as any of the varieties near of kin, failing only, as has been said, in productiveness and in coming in bearing rather tardily. Evidently destined to pass from commercial cultivation, Late Crawford ought long to remain one of the treasures of the home orchard.
Late Crawford was raised by William Crawford, Middletown, New Jersey, at least a hundred years ago, the exact date of origin, as well as its parentage, being unknown. The variety was first brought to notice by William Kenrick, Newton, Massachusetts, who described it in the American Orchardist under the name Crawford's Superb Malacatune. No doubt it has a worthy line of ancestors in the old seedling orchards of the early colonists, the fact that it is the founder of a race indicating long-continued reproduction from seeds with little interposition of budding. At the National Convention of Fruit-Growers held in 1848, Late Crawford was placed in the list of recommended fruits and since that time has held a place on the fruit-list of the American Pomological Society. It was first listed as Crawford's Late; later as Crawford's Late Melocoton and now appears as Late Crawford in accordance with the Society's rules of nomenclature.
LATE CRAWFORD
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, not very productive; trunk stocky, smooth; branches thick, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets long, somewhat twiggy, dark reddish-brown overlaid with olive-green, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, numerous, small, raised lenticels.
Leaves six and seven-eighths inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, folded upward and curled downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thick, leathery; upper surface dark olive-green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole one-half inch long, with one to six small, globose, reddish-brown glands variable in position.
Flower-buds tender, large, above medium in length, obtuse or conical, plump, very pubescent, appressed or free; blossoms open in mid-season; flowers one and one-eighth inches across, pink, well distributed; pedicels short, medium to slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green, orange-colored within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes medium to broad, obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without, becoming heavily pubescent near the edges; petals oval to ovate, notched at the base, tapering to narrow claws which are reddish at the base; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent near the base, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures late; two and three-fourths inches long, two and eleven-sixteenths inches wide, roundish-oval, compressed, with unequal halves; cavity deep, medium to narrow, abrupt or flaring; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex roundish, with a slightly pointed and swollen beak-like tip; color deep yellow, dully or brightly blushed, with the red cheek splashed with darker red; pubescence short, fine; skin thick, tough, separates readily from the pulp; flesh yellow, strongly stained with red at the pit, juicy, firm but tender, sweet but sprightly, richly flavored; very good in quality; stone free, one and three-fourths inches long, one and one-eighth inches wide, ovate, flattened, bulged on one side, blunt-pointed, flattened near the base, with surfaces deeply pitted and grooved; ventral suture deeply grooved along the edges; dorsal suture a deep, wide groove, winged.