FITZGERALD
1. Can. Hort. 18:417. 1895. 2. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 2:57. 1895. 3. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 235, 236. 1896. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 33. 1899. 5. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:344. 1903. 6. Can. Hort. 27:195 fig. 1904. 7. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 196, 202. 1913.
Compare the color-plates of Fitzgerald and Early Crawford and it is seen at once that the two peaches are almost identical in fruit and foliage. There could be no use in growing Fitzgerald in this State, so similar is it to the better-known Early Crawford, were it not for the fact that the two differ in season a few days and that possibly Fitzgerald is the more productive of the two. Fitzgerald ripens a few days earlier than Early Crawford though in some of the references given it is said to ripen a few days later. Canadian peach-growers claim that Fitzgerald, besides being more productive and extending the season of Early Crawford, is hardier. In the effort to maintain peaches of the Crawford family in commercial plantations it may be worth while to try Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald originated a quarter of a century or more ago at Oakville, Ontario, but who the originator or what the parentage is not known. The American Pomological Society placed Fitzgerald on its list of recommended fruits in 1899, a place it still holds.
FITZGERALD
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, round-topped, hardy, not very productive; trunk smooth; branches smooth, reddish-brown covered with light ash-gray; branchlets long, with inclination to develop short, spur-like branchlets, pinkish-red or dark red intermingled with green, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous, rather small lenticels.
Leaves six inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward but recurved, oval to obovate-lanceolate; upper surface dark green tinged with olive-green, rugose; lower surface light grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole one-half inch long, glandless or with one to five small, globose, greenish-yellow glands variable in position.
Flower-buds hardy, conical, pubescent, plump, free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers pale pink varying to a deeper red along the edges, seven-eighths inch across; pedicels very short, slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green, orange-colored within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, acute, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals roundish-oval to ovate, white at the center, tapering to narrow claws often red at the base; filaments one-fourth inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent at the ovary, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and one-half inches long, more than two and one-half inches wide, roundish-oval to cordate, somewhat compressed, with unequal halves, bulged at one side; cavity medium to deep, wide, abrupt or often flaring, marked with radiating streaks; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex roundish, ending in a recurved, mamelon point; color golden-yellow more or less overspread with a dull red blush, with splashes and mottlings of deeper red; pubescence long, thick; skin thin, tough; flesh yellow, rayed with red at the pit, juicy, rather firm, tender, sweet or mildly subacid, pleasant flavored; very good in quality; stone free, one and one-half inches long, one inch wide, ovate, plump, flattened near the base, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture very deeply furrowed along the sides; dorsal suture slightly winged.
FOSTER
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 32. 1869. 2. Am. Hort. Ann. 82 fig. 39. 1870. 3. Gard. Mon. 12:371. 1870. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 1st App. 121. 1872. 5. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 32, 260. 1874. 6. Cult. & Count. Gent. 44:678. 1879. 7. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:345. 1903. 8. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 202. 1913.
Foster's Seedling. 9. Am. Jour. Hort. 2:277 fig. 1867.
Foster is another very good peach of the Crawford type and at one time was widely grown in all northern peach-regions. It is so similar to Late Crawford that even experienced growers can hardly tell them apart. Those who grow the two in the same orchard find the essential differences to be: Foster is the larger peach, is more rotund, somewhat more flattened at the base, is a little earlier, possibly handsomer and is even of better quality than Late Crawford; the trees of Foster, however, are hardly as productive as those of either of the two unproductive Crawfords. This unproductiveness is the fault that keeps the variety in the background as a commercial peach. The variety is well worth planting in any home orchard.