1. Mag. Hort. 27:65, 66. 1861. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 78. 1862. 3. Gard. Mon. 5:68, 69, 198, 277, 278. 1863. 4. Horticulturist 18:63, 64, 197, 198, 242, 243 fig., 244. 1863. 5. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 615. 1869. 6. Horticulturist 27:23, 304. 1872. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909.
Précoce de Hale. 8. Mas Le Verger 7:193, 194, fig. 95. 1866-73.
Hale. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 44. 1891. 10. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:215. 1899.
In the middle of the last century, Hale Early was considered the best peach of its season for home and market. Even now it has several characters to recommend it; as, large, vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive trees, fruits handsome in color, uniform in size and shape, with flesh more than ordinarily free from the stone for an early peach, fair quality for the season and extreme earliness. The chief fault is that the peaches run small in size, scarcely exceeding large marbles, which they resemble in roundness. The variety must be grown in the best of peach-lands, heavily thinned, and the trees severely pruned. The peaches, besides being small, are very susceptible to brown-rot. Nowhere very commonly planted, the variety is still widely distributed, a fact, in view of the competition with many early peaches, which speaks well for a peach introduced more than fifty years ago. It is interesting to note that Hale Early was introduced into Europe many years ago and that European pomologists still speak highly of it.
Hale Early grew from a seed planted in 1850 by a German named Moas at Randolph, Portage County, Ohio. A few years later the attention of a Mr. Hale, Summit County, Ohio, was called to the seedling and he, impressed with its earliness, began to propagate it. About 1859 the variety was introduced by Hale and Jewett, nurserymen in Summit County, as Hale's Early German. In some localities it became known as Early German but finally the name Hale's Early was adopted. It was so listed in the American Pomological Society's fruit-catalog in 1862 but in 1891 the name was changed to Hale so to remain until 1909 when it appeared in the Society's catalog as Hale Early. The adoption of the last name is warranted, possibly, from the fact that another peach named Hale existed several years before the origin of the present sort.
HALE EARLY
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, variable in productiveness; trunk thick; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with ash-gray; branchlets long, dark pinkish-red with a trace of olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with rather few large, conspicuous lenticels.
Leaves flat or curled downward, six and one-fourth inches long, one and one-fourth inches wide, long-oval to obovate-lanceolate, thin, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, often in two series, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to four small, globose, reddish-brown glands usually at the base of the blade.
Flower-buds conical or pointed, plump, pubescent, usually free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers dark pink at the center, with lighter pink toward the margin and with streaks of light pink along the veins, one and one-half inches across, usually single; pedicels short, glabrous, green, with a few reddish dots; calyx-tube dull green mottled with red, with varying shades of orange within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, usually obtuse, pubescent within and without, with longer hairs along the edges, erect; petals round or inclined to oval, entire, notched on both sides near the claws which are short, broad and tinged with red near the base; filaments one-half inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil finely pubescent at the ovary, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures early; one and three-fourths inches long, one and seven-eighths inches wide, round, slightly compressed, with unequal halves; cavity regular, medium to deep, wide, flaring; suture shallow, with a slight bulge near the apex; apex roundish or flattened, ending abruptly in a short, sharp, recurved point; color creamy-white, with an attractive blush extending over one-half of the surface; pubescence short, thick; skin tough, free; flesh white, juicy, tender, sweet, with some astringency; good in quality; stone semi-free, one and five-sixteenths inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, ovate or oval, plump, with a short-pointed apex, surfaces marked by short grooves; ventral suture deep along the sides, narrow; dorsal suture deeply grooved, winged.
HEATH CLING
1. Prince Treat. Fr. Trees 17. 1820. 2. Kenrick Am. Orch. 234. 1832. 3. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Gr. 51. 1848. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 78. 1862. 5. Fulton Peach Cult. 197, 198. 1908.
Heath. 6. Coxe Cult. Fr. Trees 228. 1817. 7. Lond. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 97. 1831. 8. Prince Pom. Man. 2:29, 30. 1832. 9. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 494, 495. 1845. 10. Floy-Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 187, 188. 1846. 11. Elliott Fr. Book 274, 275. 1854. 12. Mas Le Verger 7:207, 208, fig. 102. 1866-73. 13. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909.
White English. 14. Horticulturist N. S. 7:178, 179. 1857.
Heath Cling is unquestionably the oldest named American peach now under cultivation. Its antiquity constitutes about its only claim to recognition though for its tree-characters and for at least one fruit-character it ought to be retained for breeding. Few varieties have larger, healthier, hardier trees than Heath Cling, the fact that the oldest of our peaches has from the first retained these characters in pristine vigor confuting the notion that varieties degenerate. In the descriptions of Chinese peaches in Chapter 1, we read of winter peaches—sorts that could be kept for three or four months after picking. Of all American peaches, Heath Cling, possibly, most nearly approaches these Chinese winter peaches. It has been known to keep in good condition from October to December. Its quality, at best, is good but often it runs poor. Well grown, the peach has a sweet, rich, vinous taste but the flesh adheres so tightly to the stone that it is not pleasant eating out of hand though splendid cooked, preserved or pickled, the stone in culinary operations imparting a pleasant flavor of peach-pit bitterness. It is the best of all peaches to preserve or pickle whole. The color-plate shows the blushed sides of Heath Cling and therefore too much red for typical specimens of this variety.
Just how old Heath Cling is no one knows but it probably was grown in the colonies before the Revolution. Two accounts are given of its origin. According to one it originated with Daniel Heath of Maryland from a pit brought from the Mediterranean. Another is that the honor of originating this peach belongs in the Prince family and that the first William Prince discovered the variety growing wild on the farm of Judge Willet, Flushing, New York. The Princes, according to this account, gave it the name Heath because it was found on a barren heath. It seems fairly well established that the variety was in the Prince orchards before the Revolutionary War whether or not it was found and named by them.