278 Bulletin 71. 



had unusual success with trained apricots, and he has kindly 

 given me his experience : 



"I have been successful in growing apricots during the past 

 twenty years, never having failed in securing a fair crop during 

 that time. My trees are trained to the northwest walls of a build- 

 ing something over 100 feet in length. The trees are eight feet 

 apart and are trained to a height of ten or twelve feet. All pro- 

 jecting limbs are cut off and those that can be secured to the wall 

 are trained so as to cover it as completely as possible. The vari- 

 eties grown are Moorpark, Peach and Alberge de Montgamet. 

 The Moorpark is of the highest quality but the trees are deficient 

 in vigor and are rather shy bearers. The Peach apricot is a 

 heavy bearer and the fruit is of excellent flavor but of rather 

 small size. The Alberge de Montgamet has large and handsome 

 fruit, — the showiest of any I have seen grown in America — but 

 the quality is not equal to the others. The trees are very vigor- 

 ous. In another place I have a number of trees of the Purple 

 apricot. The fruit is quite acid and I know of nothing to recom- 

 mend it. The fruit rots badly before ripening. There are two 

 advantages in the northern exposure : the blossom buds are kept 

 back in spring, and a larger crop of fruit sets in the later bloom- 

 ing : and the cooler and moister conditions during the develop- 

 ment and ripening of the fruit ensure more uniform results." 



II. VARIETIES OF APRICOTS. 



There are three species of true apricots in cultivation in Western 

 New York ; and to these might be added the apricot plum, Primus 

 Sujionii, a sufficient discussion of which w^as given in our Bulle- 

 tin 51. These three species of apricots, to which we must give 

 attention at this place, are the Purple {Primus dasycarpa), the 

 Chinese or Japanese {P.Mume), and the common and Russian apri- 

 cots {P. Armeniaca). These species may be distinguished as fol- 

 lows : 



I. Prunus dasycarpa. Purple or Black Apricot.— 

 Fruit (Fig. 5) globular and somewhat plum-like, with a distinct 



