Paul’s Earliest 1, 2.
This variety seems to be under test only at this Station where it has fruited for a number of years. It is so similar to Early Rivers, a variety of small account in America, as to be an almost worthless addition to the list of plums. Paul Early originated with and was sent out by J. M. Paul, North Adams, Massachusetts, about 1888.
Tree very large, vigorous, round-topped, dense, very productive; branches covered with numerous fruit-spurs; branchlets twiggy, thickly pubescent; leaf-buds strongly appressed; leaves flattened, obovate or oval, two and three-eighths inches wide, four inches long; margin crenate, with few, small, dark glands; petiole reddish, pubescent, glandless or with one or two large glands; blooming season intermediate in time, short; flowers appearing before the leaves, one inch across; borne in scattering clusters, usually in pairs; pedicels very thick and pubescent; anthers tinged red.
Fruit very early, season short; one and three-eighths inches by one and one-quarter inches in size, roundish-oval, dark purplish-black, overspread with thick bloom; skin tender, slightly sour; flesh greenish-yellow becoming yellowish, tender, sweet near the surface but sour next the pit, mild; good; stone clinging, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size, irregular-oval, with roughened and thickly pitted surfaces; ventral suture prominent, seldom winged; dorsal suture with a narrow, shallow groove.
PEACH
Prunus domestica
1. N. E. Farmer Dict. 266. 1797. 2. Prince Treat. Hort. 27. 1828. 3. Prince Pom. Man. 2:106. 1832. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 307. 1845. 5. Horticulturist 1:113, 114 fig. 34, 147. 1846. 6. Poiteau Pom. Franc. 1:1846. 7. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 335, 336 fig. 262. 1849. 8. Horticulturist 6:132. 1851. 9. Elliott Fr. Book 422. 1854. 10. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 367. 1857. 11. Hooper W. Fr. Book 250. 1857. 12. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 86. 1862. 13. Hogg Fruit Man. 375. 1866. 14. Mas Le Verger 6:73. Pl. XXXVII. 1866-73. 15. Pom. France 7: No. 7. 1871. 16. Gard. Chron. N. S. 17:144. 1882. 17. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 466. 1883. 18. Wickson Cal. Fruits 353. 1891. 19. Wash. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 136. 1893. 20. Guide Prat. 156, 361. 1895. 21. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 462 fig. 1906.
Apricot Plum 5 incor. Caledonian 15, 20. Calvels Pfirschenpflaume 14, 20. D’Abricot (of Streets of Paris) 20. Duane’s Purple 5 incor, 6, 11. Howells Large 15, 20, 21. Jenkin’s Imperial 15, 20. Large Peach 16. Large Peach Plum 3. Nectarine 15, 20. Nectarine Rouge 21. Peach 15, 20. Peach Plum 3, 5, 14, 20. Peach Plum 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17. Pêche 14, 15, 20, 21. Pêche de Calvel 20. Prune Pêche 3, 7, 9, 10, 14, 18. Prune Pêche 4, 5, 6, 20. Prune-Pêche De Calvel 14. Reine-Claude De Berger 13, 16. Rothe Nektarine 15, ?20.
Peach, the largest early plum, is not high in quality but is justly esteemed where it can be grown for its earliness, large size and handsome appearance. Unfortunately this variety is capricious beyond most other plums as to climate and soils and refuses to thrive unless its needs are very well supplied in the matter of environment. In America it seems to find congenial soil and climate only on the Pacific Coast, and even then refuses to bear well except on strong, rich soils. In New York, even when grown upon soils similar to those upon which it does well elsewhere, the fruits are few and lacking in quality, though the trees are large, vigorous and about all that could be desired in a good plum tree. It may be possible to grow Peach in favorable locations in the East; in which case, a plum of its appearance and quality, coming as early in the season as it ripens, would make a most desirable addition to the list of plums. From its behavior elsewhere the situation that would suit it best in New York is a sunny exposure with a warm, rich, clay loam.
The origin of the Peach is unknown. Poiteau was unable to find any reference to it in the Eighteenth Century European literature and thought, therefore, that it must have been unknown to this period. Samuel Deane mentions a Peach plum in New England in 1797. It is doubtful, however, whether it is the Peach of this discussion, the name having been applied indiscriminately to several varieties, the Goliath, Nectarine and Apricot in particular. Prince, in 1832, described a Large Peach Plum which he said “had been introduced a few years since” but as his variety is oval and a clingstone, it is not the same as the Peach of Poiteau, the one discussed here, this plum being nearly round and a freestone. Judge James C. Duane of Schenectady, New York, seems to have first imported the Peach plum, with several others, from France, in 1820. The name of this variety was lost during the shipment and as the invoice called for an Apricot Plum, the names Apricot and Duane’s Plum became locally applied to what afterwards turned out to be the Peach. C. H. Tomlinson of Schenectady and A. J. Downing in 1846 made a careful study of these imported plums and showed conclusively that this Apricot or Duane’s Plum was the Peach of the French. In 1862, the American Pomological Society added Peach to the fruit catalog list and recommended it for the eastern and western sections of New York.