PEARSON
1. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:105. 1901. 2. N. Y. State Fr. Gr. Assoc. Rpt. 21. 1912.
Pearson is a newcomer among peaches which will bear watching if it does as well in other parts of New York as on the Station grounds. It is a large, handsomely-colored, white-fleshed, freestone peach of good quality which ripens ten days before Champion. There are, it is true, a good many white-fleshed peaches at this season but Pearson is an exceptionally good one, much excelling Mamie Ross with which it might have to compete although the latter ripens a little later. The trees are very vigorous, productive and, so far, about as healthy as any on the Station grounds.
Pearson originated with J. M. Pearson, McKinney, Texas. Its parentage is unknown. The variety was introduced by E.W. Kirkpatrick of McKinney, who thinks it may be a seedling of Chinese Cling.
PEARSON
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, the lower branches drooping, very productive; trunk medium in thickness, smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, short, with short internodes, dark red mingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with few inconspicuous lenticels variable in size and raised toward the base.
Leaves seven inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, variable in position, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark, dull green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; apex long and narrow; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to four small, globose, reddish-brown glands usually at the base of the blade.
Flower-buds hardy, long, heavily pubescent, conical to obtuse, plump, appressed or partly free; blossoms appear very early; flowers nearly two inches across, pink, usually single; pedicels short, of medium thickness, glabrous, green; calyx-tube dark, dull reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, often emarginated, acute or obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval to roundish-obovate, tapering to long, narrow claws; filaments about one-half inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent only at the base, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures in early mid-season; two and one-fourth inches long, two and three-sixteenths inches wide, round-oval or somewhat cordate, compressed, with unequal halves, bulged near the apex; cavity medium to deep, abrupt or flaring, with tender skin; suture quite variable in depth; apex round or depressed, with a small, mucronate or recurved, mamelon tip; color greenish-white, with a blush covering much of the surface, more or less mottled; pubescence thin, fine, short; skin thin, tough, semi-free; flesh white, faintly tinged with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, tender and melting, pleasantly flavored; good in quality; stone semi-clinging or free, one and three-eighths inches long, one inch wide, oval, flattened at the base, winged, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved near the edges, narrow; dorsal suture grooved, winged.