Brigdon is a local variety which possibly local pride puts too much in evidence in assigning it a place among the major varieties in The Peaches of New York. Still, it belongs with the Crawfords, aristocrats among peaches, and this is enough to give it standing in a home collection at least. In tree and fruit it is similar to and a worthy rival of Early Crawford and has the same two fatal faults to bar it from commercial plantations—the trees are capricious as to soils and are often unproductive. On the other hand, a character of the tree to commend it to the amateur is that it is one of the least susceptible of all peach-trees to leaf-curl. The variety is well known only in western New York and is going out in this region.
Brigdon originated more than a quarter-century ago in Cayuga County, New York, and has been grown since more or less extensively on the shores of Seneca Lake. The name Garfield was given to this peach by some one but why or when does not appear. The variety was added to the American Pomological Society's recommended list of fruits in 1899, a distinction it has since held.
BRIGDON
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy, unproductive; trunk thick; branches stocky, rather smooth, reddish-brown overlaid with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, with tendency to branch, long, olive-green overlaid with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous large and small, inconspicuous, irregularly shaped and often raised lenticels, the expansion of which causes a cracking of the bark.
Leaves five and seven-eighths inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, folded upward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with dark glands; petiole nearly one-half inch long, glandless or with one to four small, globose, greenish-yellow glands variable in position.
Flower-buds oblong-conic, pubescent, somewhat shrunken, usually free; blossoms open in mid-season.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and one-half inches long, two and three-fourths inches wide, round-oval to cordate, compressed, bulged beak-like near the apex; cavity deep, medium to wide, abrupt or flaring, often colored with red; suture shallow, becoming deep near the apex; apex roundish, with a pointed or recurved, mamelon tip; color greenish-yellow changing to pale orange-yellow, speckled and splashed with dull red which often extends over nearly the whole surface; pubescence long, thick, woolly; skin thin, somewhat tough, separates from the pulp only when fully ripe; flesh yellow, juicy, coarse, firm, tender, sweet, mild, pleasant flavored; very good in quality; stone semi-free to free, one and one-fourth inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, oval, decidedly bulged on one side, with a rather long and slightly curved point, with pitted and grooved surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the edges, medium in width; dorsal suture grooved, slightly winged.
CANADA
1. Mich. Sta. Bul. 118:33. 1895.
Early Canada. 2. Gard. Mon. 20:237. 1878. 3. Ibid. 27:144, 145. 1885. 4. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 80. 1897. 5. Bogue Cat. 25. 1905.
Canadische Frühpfirsich. 6. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 391. 1889.
Since its introduction some twenty-five years ago, Canada has been a standard early peach in the northern states and more particularly in the peach-growing region along Lake Ontario in Canada where it originated. The variety has few characters to commend it excepting earliness and hardiness though the trees often load themselves with fruit. The peaches, though small, are attractive in color which is bright red on a light background. The red is well shown in the color-plate though the fruits illustrated are rather smaller than usual. Canada is about the poorest of all peaches in flavor. The fruits are firm and ship well for a white-fleshed peach making, so many maintain, a better commercial variety than its rival, Alexander. On our grounds Canada is freer from rot than Alexander and the flesh does not cling as tightly. All agree that the tree is very hardy. However, there ought to be but small place in the peach-lists of nowadays for a variety so poor in quality and with fruits of such inferior size as those of Canada.
The variety originated as a chance seedling more than a quarter-century ago with A. H. High, Jordan, Ontario, Canada. It is often known as Early Canada and is not infrequently confounded with Amsden and Alexander, varieties of the same season.
