THE EARLY CANADA PEACH.
It is quite refreshing in these days of shams to find now and then a genuine article; to find that a fruit, for instance, which has been put forth under certain claims and pretensions turns out to possess all the good qualities claimed for it—that all is not mere pretence, but reality. Three or four years ago we were shown a peach by one of our members, Mr. Allen Moyer, which was then ripe, it was July, and informed by him that he had taken it from a tree growing in a fence corner on the farm of Mr. High, not far from Jordan Station. We were not then permitted to taste it, but noted that the sample was of good size, and well colored. We were surprised to learn that so large and so early ripening a variety should be found under such circumstances, and ventured the caution that some unnatural cause had brought about a premature ripening. Last year, (1877,) we went with Mr. Moyer to see the tree on the first of August, and found it loaded with fruit which was just ripe, and found that in point of quality and general character, it bore a strong resemblance to Hale’s Early, but ripening some time before that variety.
Meanwhile it seems that this variety has been placed in the hands of Mr. Chas. Downing, Newburg, N. Y., and Mr. J. H. Watkins, of Palmetto, Georgia, and from the August number of the Gardener’s Monthly we learn that Mr. Watkins has fruited, on the same tree, Alexander, Amsden, Honeywell, Early Canada, Brigg’s May, Beatrice, Louise, and Rivers, and he says of them “that in appearance the four first named were strikingly similar, the Honeywell slightly smaller, but equal to any in flavor, with the exception, possibly, of the Early Canada, which showed the highest color. If there was any difference at all in the earliness of the first four peaches, the Early Canada certainly had it; the Canada is almost a perfect free-stone, adheres very slightly, unlike the others in this respect, so far as I had an opportunity to examine. The hardiness of trees, quality, and appearance of fruit, size, flavor, &c., will determine which is most suitable for general cultivation, the Alexander, Amsden, Honeywell, or Early Canada, as the slight difference in time, when it exists, is of no practical value.”
Mr. Downing says, “My experience with Alexander, Amsden, Honeywell, and Early Canada, with two years fruiting, is about the same as Dr. Watkins, and, as I have before stated, if the four kinds were put in a dish, it would puzzle a good pomologist to separate them, and yet there is no doubt but that they are all distinct kinds.”
It may be then set down as an ascertained fact that the Early Canada is as early, as large, and of as good quality as the Alexander, Amsden or Honeywell, while to us it has the additional quality of being a native of our climate, and therefore likely the better to bear its peculiar vicissitudes. We trust our cultivators will yet take the peach in hand, and give us a race of Canadian seedlings, hardier, healthier, and better than imported sorts.
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