Apricot Growing in Westkrn Xew York. 277 



than the apricot, but that the apricot suffers more because of its 

 earliness. These persons recommend the planting of plum trees 

 amongst the apricots to attract the insects, upon which thej' can 

 then be caught in great numbers. 



It is presumed that the reader is acquainted with the methods 

 of catching the curculio ; but it may be well to say that the oper- 

 ation consists in knocking the insects from the tree by a quick jar 

 or shake, catching them upon a white sheet or in a canvas hopper. 

 The "catcher" most commonly used in Western New York (man- 

 ufactured by J. B. Johnson, Geneva), is a strong cloth hopper 

 mounted upon a wheelbarrow-like frame, and running upon two 

 wheels. The hopper converges into a tin box, into which the 

 curculio roll as they fall iipon the hopper. One man wheels the 

 devise, by barrow-like handles, under the tree, then drops the 

 handles and jars the tree ; or sometimes two men go with a ma- 

 chine, one wheeling it and the other jarring the trees. There are 

 other devices for catching the curculio, but this is the most satis- 

 factory one which I know. 



The apricot has no other serious enemies in New York state, 

 so far as I know. There is sometimes a spotted surface upon the 

 fruit, appearing when the fruit is nearly grown 

 and making a blemish, but not interfering with 

 the quality. It is possible that there is more 

 than one origin of these blemishes, but the 

 causes have not 5'et been determined, although 

 they are probably due to fungi. On most 

 varieties, the trouble does not appear to be 

 serious. Fig. 4 shows a spotted green fruit, 

 natural size. In this particular disease, the ^. Apricot Spot. 

 spots are elevated like small red pimples. 

 There is also a leaf-spot on apricot trees which may be associated 

 with some of this surface injurj' of the fruit. 



Thus far, I have written of the cultivation of the apricot in 

 orchards. The fruit is w^ell adapted to training on walls and 

 buildings, however, where the peculiar excellence of the fruit 

 fully develops even in otherwise unfavorable localities. There is 

 great danger, however, of too early bloom if the trees are set 

 upon south walls. Hon. James Wood, of Mount Kisco, has 



