1. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:814. 1896. 2. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:224. 1899. 3. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:354. 1903. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 39. 1909.
Reeves' Favorite. 5. Elliott Fr. Book 288. 1854. 6. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 633. 1857. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 30. 1875. 8. Fulton Peach Cult. 193. 1908.
Reeves' Late. 9. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 458. 1883.
Reeves is another of the old favorites now rapidly passing out of cultivation. In its day it was justly celebrated for the high quality of its yellow-fleshed, freestone fruits which are as handsome as they are palatable. The peaches have but two minor defects to keep them from perfection—they are a little too irregular in shape and sometimes fall short in size. In texture of flesh, juiciness, taste and aroma they are scarcely surpassed. The fault that condemns the variety is unproductiveness in the trees. Under average conditions, Reeves is scarcely as productive as the Crawfords which are rated by all as about the poorest bearers. Making up in some degree for unfruitfulness, the trees are vigorous and more than usually hardy. It can hardly be expected that so poor a bearer will prove profitable in commercial plantations but Reeves is worthy of perpetuation for home orchards.
This attractive peach came from a chance seedling found about sixty years ago by Samuel Reeves, Salem, New Jersey. The variety has for many years gone under the name Reeves' Favorite and was so listed in the fruit-catalog of the American Pomological Society in 1875 but in 1909 the name was shortened by the Society to Reeves.
REEVES
Tree medium to large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, rather unproductive; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown with light ash-gray; branchlets intermediate in thickness and length, with a tendency to rebranch, dark pinkish-red with some olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with moderately conspicuous lenticels raised and breaking the bark near the base.
Leaves six and three-fourths inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, variable in position, oval to obovate-lanceolate; upper surface dark olive-green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; apex acuminate; margin finely serrate, with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to three small, globose glands variable in position.
Flower-buds tender, medium in size and length, pubescent, conical or pointed, plump, free; blossoms open late; flowers seven-eighths inch across, light and dark pink, well distributed; pedicels very short, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube reddish-green at the base, orange-colored within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes medium to narrow, acute, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals oval to ovate, tapering to claws red at the base; filaments three-eighths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent near the base, as long as the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and three-eighths inches long, two and one-half inches wide, round-cordate, bulged at one side, compressed, with unequal halves; cavity often very deep, flaring or abrupt, the skin tender and often marked with red; suture shallow, sometimes extending beyond both cavity and tip; apex pointed or rounded, with a prominent, recurved, mamelon tip; color deep yellow, blushed with dull red, striped, splashed and mottled with brighter red; pubescence thick, long; skin thick, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh yellow, tinged with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, tender and melting, pleasantly flavored, mild, sweet; very good in quality; stone free, one and three-eighths inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, ovate to oval, more or less bulged near the apex, sometimes winged along the ventral suture, with pitted and grooved surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the sides, narrow, grooved; dorsal suture small, grooved.
RIVERS
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 34. 1883. 2. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 6:22 fig. 1899. 3. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:106. 1901. 4. Can. Hort. 25:464. 1902. 5. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:354. 1903.
Early Rivers. 6. Jour. Hort. N. S. 17:38, 58. 1869. 7. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 1st App. 120, 121. 1872. 8. Gard. Chron. 1262. 1872. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 28. 1875. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 445. 1884. 11. Rev. Hort. 388. 1890. 12. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 98 fig. 1906.
Rivers' Frühe. 13. Lauche Deut. Pom. VI: No. 9, Pl. 1882.
Précoce Rivers. 14. Baltet Cult. Fr. 239 fig. 138. 1908.
Rivers and one other, Salwey, are the only foreign peaches now commonly cultivated in America. The peach, of all tree-fruits, best proves the general rule that American varieties of fruits are best adapted to American conditions. Perhaps to Rivers may be added three or four more exotic peaches which are now and then planted in this country but all are passing out so rapidly that we shall soon be standing on a basis in peach-growing which is wholly American. Earliness and high quality of fruit keep Rivers alive in private places in America. No one would think of planting it in a commercial orchard because of its small fruit, tender skin and flesh which show every bruise, and its susceptibility to brown-rot. It is a white-fleshed freestone, tender, juicy and with an exceedingly rich, sugary flavor with a savoring smack of the nectarine. This variety stands almost alone in beauty of flesh which is white to the stone, translucent and more or less mottled and interspersed with white veins. At its best the fruits are rather large and quite handsome as they grow in America, but even so they are but a shadow of the peach described under this name in European fruit-books. The trees are fairly satisfactory in all essential characters.
Rivers originated with Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, England, about 1865 as a seedling of Early Silver. Soon after its introduction in England it was brought to America. The American Pomological Society listed the variety in its fruit-catalog in 1875 as Early Rivers but in 1883 changed the name to Rivers though it is still popularly known as Early Rivers.