The one surviving variety of the Early Crawford retained in the USDA germ plasm banks is the Crane or Yellow St. John, a rounder, fatter version of a shade less lusciousness than the original. PI 673513 http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1010230 . The Crawford Peaches (early & late) were regarded as the quintessential Persian peaches of nineteenth-century America.

As it’s name suggests, the fruit ripened in early June. It offered rich flavor, juice, and tenderness, ans subtle aroma. The red skin was attractive, and the yellow flesh, rayed with threads of red, was visually striking. It was regarded as the best tasting early peach. The variety grew substantially larger in southern Piedmont orchards than those farther north. "A magnificent, large yellow peach of good quality; tree exceedingly vigorous and productive; its size and beauty make it one of the most popular orchards fruits; flesh very juicy, rich, slightly sub-acid, of good flavor; valuable as a market variety; freestone. August" (Franklin Davis Richmond Nurseries, Richmond VA 1869).

Nurseries that offered Crawford's Early prior to 1920:

Alabama Nursery Company, Huntsville AL 1900. D. Beatie’s Atlanta Nursery, 1891, 1895. F. Hillenmeyer’s Bluegrass Nursery, Lexington, KY 1891, 1897, 1909. W. Craft’s Cedar Grover Nursery, Salem, NC 1893. Cherokee Nursery, Waycross, GA 1893. Clingman Nursery & Orchard, Kiethville LA 1908. Colmant Nurseries, West End AL 1904. Delaware Nurseries, Milford DE 1910. S. Downer & Sons Nursery, Fairview KY 1870. W. Kerr Eastern Shore Nurseries, Denton MD 1900. J. Berckmans Fruitland Nurseries, Augusta GA 1877. William Summer Pomaria Nursery, Pomaria SC 1856. C. Ferrell Planter’s Nurseries, Humboldt TN 1894. Franklin Davis Richmond Nurseries, Richmond VA 1869. Van Lindley Nursery, Pomona NC 1915. Willow Lake Nursery, Marshallville GA 1900. Turkey Creek Nursuries, Macclenny FL 1906. Charles Wright’s Peachland Nurseries, Seaford DE 1891. Munson Hill Nurseries & Greenhouses, Falles Church VA 1908. Forked Deer Nursery, Curve TN 1890. T. Hood Old Dominion Nursery, Richmond VA 1894. Mallinckrodt Nursery, St. Charles MO 1891. L. Taber, Glen St. Mary Nursery, Glen St. Mary FL 1897. 

Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Mary Arnold, 1936. 

David S Shields