TROTH
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 35. 1899. 2. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:228. 1899. 3. Am. Gard. 24:413. 1903.
Troth's Early Rareripe. 4. Kenrick Am. Orch. 183. 1841.
Troth's Early Red. 5. Elliott Fr. Book 304. 1859. 6. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 634. 1869.
Troth's Early. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 80. 1862. 8. Am. Jour. Hort. 3:341. 1868. 9. Fulton
Peach Cult. 183, 184. 1908.
Troth, the standard early peach in the middle of the last century, is now all but out of cultivation. It is still listed in a few nursery catalogs and is still on the fruit-list of the American Pomological Society. Among the multitude of early peaches now grown, Troth cuts but a sorry figure in either tree- or fruit-characters. It is worth discussing here only because it is a milestone in the evolution of cultivated peaches.
Troth, first known as Troth's Early Red, originated in the first years of the Nineteenth Century, probably in New Jersey. Nothing is known of its parentage or of the originator. It ripens with Early York and some pomologists have confused it with this variety and also with Haines but, while similar to both, Troth is distinct. The American Pomological Society placed the variety upon its fruit-list in 1862 under the name Troth's Early Red but dropped it in 1891. In 1899 it was once more recommended by the Pomological Society, being listed as Troth.
Tree above medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, the lower branches drooping, very productive; trunk somewhat stocky; branches thick, smooth, reddish-brown covered with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, long, with short internodes, dark pinkish-red intermingled with green, with conspicuous, very numerous, large and small lenticels; leaves six and one-fourth inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, flattened and slightly curled downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery, dark, dull green, smooth becoming rugose near the midrib; margin finely and shallowly serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, with one to five very small, globose, reddish-brown glands; flower-buds half-hardy, of medium size and length, more or less pubescent, obtuse or conical, plump, usually appressed; blossoms small, appear in mid-season.
Fruit matures in early mid-season; two inches long, two and one-eighth inches wide, roundish-oblate, slightly bulged at one side, somewhat compressed, with halves decidedly unequal; cavity of medium depth and width, abrupt, somewhat irregular, contracted about the sides, often dotted and striped with red; suture rather shallow, extending considerably beyond the point; apex roundish or depressed, with a mucronate or slightly pointed tip; color greenish-white or creamy-white, blushed with dark, dull red and with more or less heavy mottlings extending over more than half of the surface; pubescence thick, short; skin thin, tender, adheres somewhat to the pulp; flesh whitish, tinged with red near the pit, variable in juiciness, tender, nearly melting, pleasant flavored; fair to good in quality; stone free, one and one-eighths inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, oval, flattened toward the base, acute at the apex, with grooved surfaces; ventral suture medium in width; dorsal suture grooved.