STUMP
1. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:817. 1896. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 22. 1897. 3. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:227. 1899. 4. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:357. 1903.
Stump the World. 5. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 299. 1854. 6. Elliott Fr. Book 304. 1859. 7. Horticulturist 14:106, 107, Pl. 1859. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 80. 1862. 9. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 193. 1865. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 232. 1866. 11. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 633. 1869. 12. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:242. 1898. 13. Fulton Peach Cult. 189, 190. 1908.
Stump-of-the-World. 14. N. J. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 41, 42. 1878.
Pêche du New-Jersey. 15. Leroy Dict. Pom. 6:195, 196 fig. 1879.
Late Stump. 16. Ark. Sta. Bul. 43:102. 1896.
Stump has long been a favorite white-fleshed, freestone, late peach of the Oldmixon type. It is not a handsome fruit, the color-plate flattering rather than detracting from its appearance, but makes up in quality what it lacks in looks. The flesh is melting, juicy, sparkling, rich and good though dry and very mediocre if permitted to overripen. The peaches are too tender for distant shipment and the variety is of value only for local markets and home use. The trees are large, vigorous, hardy, healthy and productive, with a shapely, upright-spreading, dense-topped head—about all that could be desired in a peach-tree. In spite of the high quality of the peaches and the splendid tree-characters, Stump is steadily waning in popularity and will, no doubt, soon pass from cultivation.
We can say little of the history of Stump other than that it originated in New Jersey at least three-quarters of a century ago. A Mr. Brant, Madison, New Jersey, in a report on peaches at the meeting of the New Jersey Horticultural Society in 1878 mentions a variety as Stump-of-the-World which originated on the farm of Samuel Whitehead in Middlesex County, New Jersey, about 1825. Mr. Brant, however, considered this sort distinct from Stump although very similar to it. From the description he gives it seems certain that he was describing the true Stump. In 1862 the American Pomological Society listed this sort in its catalog as Stump the World. The name was shortened to Stump in 1897 by the committee on nomenclature in accordance with pomological rules.
STUMP
Tree of medium size, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense-topped, productive; trunk medium in diameter, smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown tinged with light ash-gray; branchlets thick, inclined to rebranch, long, with internodes dark red mingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with many conspicuous, small, raised lenticels.
Leaves six and three-fourths inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, folded downward, broad-oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dull, dark green, rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, often in two series, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, with one to four globose glands variable in color and position.
Flower-buds semi-hardy, pubescent, conical to pointed, plump, usually more or less free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers thirteen-sixteenths inch across, white at the center, becoming pink near the margin; pedicels long, slender; calyx-tube dull reddish-green, yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals oval, faintly notched near the base, tapering to very short claws tinged with red near the base; filaments five-sixteenths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent at the ovary, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures late; about two and one-half inches in diameter, round-oval to cordate bulged near the apex, compressed, with markedly unequal halves; cavity shallow, wide, uneven in outline, flaring or abrupt, with tender skin; suture shallow, often extending beyond the tip; apex round or pointed, with a recurved, mucronate tip; color creamy-white, blushed, mottled and splashed with red; pubescence long, thick, coarse; skin thin, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh white, strongly stained with red near the pit, juicy, tender and melting, sweet, rich, pleasantly flavored, aromatic; very good in quality; stone nearly free, one and one-half inches long, one and one-sixteenth inches wide, ovate to oval, plump, flattened toward the base, tapering to a long point, with grooved surfaces; ventral suture deeply marked along the edges, narrow, sometimes winged; dorsal suture grooved.