Stevens is one of the fruits of the generation just past—a large, white and red, white-fleshed, freestone peach. The variety is best known as Stevens Rareripe but the last part of the name is inapt for the true rareripes are earlier ripening peaches while with Stevens lateness is one of its prime assets. In quality the fruits are extra good, the flesh-characters pleasing in every respect. The flavor is a pleasing mingling of sweet and sour not found in many other peaches so late in the season. The appearance of the peach is as alluring as the taste. The color-plate shows the variety almost perfectly in color and shape but the peaches as depicted are rather smaller than the average. These late, white-fleshed peaches now seldom sell well, usually reaching the markets in poor condition, but they are choice fruits for home use and for this purpose Stevens should be planted in every home orchard. The variety has the reputation of being hardy in both wood and buds.
Stevens originated about 1858 on the farm of B. Stevens, Morristown, New Jersey. Its parentage is unknown. It was listed in the American Pomological Society's catalog in 1889 as Stevens Rareripe. Later the name was shortened to Stevens in accordance with the Society's rules of nomenclature.
STEVENS
Tree vigorous, upright-spreading, with the lower branches inclined to droop, productive; trunk of medium thickness, rough; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets thick, dark reddish-brown with but little green, glossy, smooth, with numerous large and small lenticels.
Leaves six inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, folded upward and slightly recurled, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark green, glossy, rugose along the midrib; lower surface light green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to six small, reniform glands usually at the base of the leaf; flower-buds intermediate in size and length, conical to pointed, somewhat appressed, pubescent; flowers small.
Fruit matures late; about two and eleven-sixteenths inches in diameter, round to round-oval, with nearly equal sides; cavity deep, wide, flaring to abrupt; suture medium to deep, often extending beyond the tip; apex roundish, with a strongly mucronate and recurved tip; color greenish-white overlaid with attractive purplish-red, often mottled or splashed with darker red; pubescence short, fine; skin thick, tough, adherent to the pulp; flesh white, tinted with red near the pit and reddish underneath the deepest surface blush, juicy, coarse, sweet, sprightly; good in quality; stone nearly free, one and five-eighths inches long, one and one-eighth inches wide, obovate, flattened at the base, plump, with grooved surfaces; ventral suture medium to deeply grooved along the edges, intermediate in width, furrowed; dorsal suture deeply grooved, winged.
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.
