ROCHESTER
1. Heberle Bros. Cat. 11, 23. 1915. 2. N. Y. Sta. Bul. 414:6, 7, Pl. 1916. 3. N. Y. State Fr. Gr. Assoc. Rpt. 18. 1916.
Fruit-growers have long desired an early, yellow, freestone peach with suitable tree-characters for a commercial plantation. There are several competitors for the place, the latest of which is Rochester, a member of the Crawford group and in several respects a marked improvement on the well-known Early Crawford. Rochester, in season, regarding the crop as a whole, certainly precedes Early Crawford several days, ripening soon after the middle of August. The introducers say that it is two weeks earlier, a statement made possible by the fact that its season is very long, a few specimens ripening extremely early. The great length of season of this variety under some circumstances may be an asset, under others a liability. As the color-plate shows, the peaches are large, yellow, with a handsome over-color of mottled red, more rotund than either of the two Crawfords or Elberta, making, all in all, a strikingly beautiful peach. The flesh, too, meets all the requirements of a good peach—thick and firm, marbled yellow, stained with red at the pit, juicy, rich, sweet and in all respects fully up to the high standard of palatability found in peaches of the Crawford group. While the variety must be classed as a freestone, yet there is a slight clinging which may disappear under some conditions and may be augmented under others. Rochester seems to be sufficiently productive for a good commercial fruit but it remains to be seen how generally it is adapted to soils and climates. Should its range of adaptability be great, Rochester, by virtue of earliness, good quality and handsome appearance, at once takes a high place in commercial peach-growing in New York.
Rochester came from a seed planted about 1900 on a farm owned by a Mr. Wallen, near Rochester, New York. It was introduced by the Heberle Brothers Nurseries, Brighton, New York, in 1912.
ROCHESTER
Trees large, vigorous, upright-spreading, more upright than Elberta, productive; trunk medium to thick, somewhat shaggy; branches stocky, smooth, ash-gray over red; branchlets slender, long, with long internodes, green mottled with brownish-red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous inconspicuous, small lenticels.
Leaves six inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, folded upward and slightly recurled, oval to ovate-lanceolate, thin, leathery; upper surface dark green but often with a lighter tinge, smooth; lower surface grayish-green; apex acuminate; margin shallowly crenate; petiole one-half inch long, thick, with two to eight large, reniform glands variable in position.
Fruit matures in early mid-season; variable in size, the larger specimens varying from three to three and one-half inches in diameter, round-oblate, compressed, with unequal halves, often bulged near the apex; cavity wide, deep, flaring; suture shallow, becoming deeper near the tip; apex variable, often with a mucronate tip; color lemon-yellow changing to orange-yellow, blushed with deep, dark red, mottled; pubescence heavy; skin thick, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh yellow, stained with red near the pit, very juicy, tender and melting, sweet, highly flavored, sprightly; very good in quality; stone free, one and three-eighths inches long, more than one inch wide, oval, plump, flattened near the base, with roughened surface marked by large, deep pits and short grooves; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the edges, rather wide; dorsal suture grooved deeply, wide.