306 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



named, i. e., the Blenheim. The first three named are certainly grand 

 apricots of the Moorpark type, which gives us the immense size and 

 rich musky flavor in which no other class can equal them, but they 

 are too irregular in bearing and they often ripen in an irregular way, 

 that is, one end or one side will be ripe, and soft indeed, while the 

 other end is still too green for proper working in canning or drying. 

 They seem to be somewhat more subject to skin injury from fungus 

 or especially climatic adversities, and furthermore they ripen so late 

 on young trees, and in certain years as late for the clean-up picking 

 as August 31st, that they lap over into the season of other important 

 fruits that the canner must handle. Still, under favorable conditions, 

 these apricots are truly as near perfection as we are likely to get, and 

 ripen evenly, with a rich, firm, golden-yellow flesh that will be 

 thoroughly ripe and sweet long before it begins to soften, and in a 

 few locations they have borne very heavy crops with great regularity 

 • for a number of years. I have a theory that if one could find just the 

 right soil and climate for the apricots of this type they would be the 

 most profitable still, and some of my own experiences seem to prove 

 this, for I have had trees that were in an especially favorable situation 

 that bore heavy crops for a number of years in succession and then 

 became irregular in bearing when the conditions of their growing 

 became a little less favorable. The general conclusion of planters at 

 large is shown by the fact that almost no apricots of this type are being 

 planted, and indeed, in my own locality many of them have been dug 

 up or top grafted to Blenheim, while practically all the new orchards 

 are of that variety. Most of the older orchards of the Santa Clara 

 Valley are of the Moorpark class or type, and this causes a good deal 

 of the irregularity in the supply of dried and fresh apricots, so that 

 it' has become a saying in the trade that we never have two good 

 crops in succession. 



There are two chances of the loss of crop for these varieties, the 

 first is just before the SAvelling of the blossom buds in the spring, 

 when, owing to some lack of favorable conditions during the year past, 

 the blossom buds themselves will many of them drop off. That is, 

 many of them, sometimes most of them, wall drop off the tree without 

 opening. There may be a good many of those on the newer wood 

 that will stick, so the practice has grown of leaving the trees un- 

 trimmed, and the first of the growth of the year before may give a 

 late or second bloom that will make a partial crop, but it is a poor 

 dependence. 



The Blenheim seems to be a little larger than the old Royal, which is 

 the type of this class or section of the apricot. It is flatter in form 

 and i think has a little smoother skin. Neither of them will come up 

 to the sizes demanded by canners without a good deal of care in all 

 details to give them the most favorable conditions of growth and 

 development. The sizes in demand are ten and twelve to the pound 

 and larger, and while it is easy enough to get Moorparks to ten to 

 the pound, or even six, these other kinds will give you too large a 

 proportion of fruit that is smaller than that on old trees with a heavy 

 crop if anything is neglected throughout the year. Moreover, there 

 are certain years when conditions are unfavorable, too cold and cloudy 

 when the young fruit should be growing along or too hot and dry 



