HILEY
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 170. 1899. 2. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:102 fig. 7, 103. 1901. 3. U. S. D. A. Yearbook 271, 272, Pl. 34. 1903. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909.
Early Belle. 5. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:342. 1903. 6. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 12. 1907.
In spite of keen competition with many other early, white-fleshed peaches, there seems to be a place for Hiley. Two characters make it notable in its class. It is the earliest commercial freestone, white-fleshed peach and it is rather better in quality than most of its competitors. Well grown, the peaches are large in size and handsomely colored but the fruits are not quite as uniform in either size or color as could be desired for a commercial variety. The trees, while productive, are neither large nor sufficiently hardy and vigorous to make an ideal commercial sort. Still, we must end as we began, with the statement that there is a place for Hiley because of earliness and high quality. The fruits, unfortunately, are easy prey to brown-rot.
Hiley originated with Eugene Hiley, Marshallville, Georgia, about 1886. Seeds of several varieties, including Belle and Elberta, were planted and from these sprang one tree which bore the fruit under discussion. R. A. Hiley, who seems to have first discovered its value, is of the opinion that this variety is a seedling of Belle crossed with Alexander. The new peach was first named Early Belle and the first crops were shipped under this name. Later the name was changed to Hiley. The American Pomological Society placed the variety on its fruit-list in 1909.
HILEY
Tree medium in size, lacking in vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped, very productive; trunk thick; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown covered with light ash-gray; branchlets with short internodes, brownish-red heavily overlaid with olive-green, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous lenticels variable in number and size.
Leaves six and one-fourth inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upwards to nearly flattened, narrow-oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dull, dark green, mottled, nearly smooth; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to eight small, globose and reniform, greenish-yellow glands variable in position.
Flower-buds tender, obtuse, plump, heavily pubescent, appressed or nearly so; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers pink, one and seven-eighths inches across, often in twos; pedicels glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube dull, dark reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals roundish-ovate, tapering to long, broad claws red at the base; filaments one-half inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent at the ovary, equal to or often longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and three-eighths inches long, two and one-fourth inches thick, roundish-conic to oblong-conic, bulged near the apex, with unequal halves; cavity abrupt, the skin tender and tearing easily; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex pointed; color greenish-yellow with a dull blush often extending over one-half the surface, more or less mottled; pubescence thick, fine, short; skin thin, tough, separates from the pulp when fully ripe; flesh creamy-white, stained red at the pit, stringy, firm but tender, with a distinct, pleasant flavor, sprightly; good in quality; stone semi-free to free, one and three-eighths inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, elliptical to ovate, pointed at both ends, with nearly smooth surfaces; ventral suture rather wide and with deep furrows along the sides; dorsal suture a small groove.
HYNES
1. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:812. 1896. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 33. 1899. 3. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 8:14 fig. 1901. 4. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:348. 1903.
Hynes Surprise. 5. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 50. 1879. 6. Ibid. 111. 1880. 7. U. S. D. A. Pom. Rpt. 42. 1895.