CHAPTER XVIII 



THE APRICOT 



California has nearly three million apricot trees which stand in the 

 open air without protection of any kind and bear large, luscious fruit. 

 That apricot trees can do this constitutes one of the unique features 

 of California fruit growing and proclaims it different from fruit grow- 

 ing in other States, for, excepting a few localities in other parts of the 

 Pacific slope, California has a monopoly of commercial apricot grow- 

 ing, and nowhere else in the world does the fruit attain such commercial 

 importance. Although the apricot has been grown here from the 

 earliest days of the American occupation, and though since the opening 

 of the export trade in canned and dried fruits, the apricot has gained 

 in popularity, the planting of apricot orchards has not proceeded re- 

 cently with great rapidity, although indications are that our distant 

 patrons are only just beginning to recognize the desirability of the 

 fruit, and their demands will make it well-nigh impossible for us to ex- 

 tend our production beyond profitable limits. The reason by the apri- 

 cot has not kept pace with the advance of some other fruits in Cali- 

 fornia is to be found in certain limitations of suitable area which will 

 be mentioned presently. 



Though the apricot has some pests and diseases to contend with, 

 they have thus far proved slight evils, and the tree is generally regarded 

 as one of the healthiest and most vigorous, as it certainly is one of our 

 most beautiful orchard trees. It is long-lived and attains great size 

 There are here and there groups of trees nearly half a century old 

 which have a height of fifty feet ; the main trunks like forest oaks, and 

 the first branches or limbs twelve and fifteen inches through. The 

 smaller limbs and foliage are at least fifty feet across ; a half dozen of 

 them shade an acre of ground and they sometimes yield per tree a ton 

 of fruit. But such trees do not meet orchard requirements and are 

 only mentioned to show what the tree may do when it has its own way. 



The apricot is a rapid grower and an early and heavy bearer in 

 California. In the interior and in the southern coast valleys it yields 

 a paying crop during its third summer in the orchard, and from eight 

 to fourteen tons to the acre was reached for several years in succession, 

 in Judge Blackwood's old orchard of Royal apricots, in Alameda 

 County. The trees, even of some varieties which are uncertain bearers, 

 are large and vigorous growers, and have warranted the suggestion 

 that there is a use for the apricot tree for a windbreak for the protec- 

 tion of other trees. The trees may be planted near together in strong 

 land and make a windbreak that will pay its way without regard to 

 such fruit as it may incidentally produce. 



Apricots are chiefly marketed as a dried fruit and the operation 

 of drying will be described in the chapter devoted to such processes. 

 The amount used in canning is, in a year of full production, about one- 

 quarter of that for drying, while the weight of fruit sold fresh to con- 

 sumers, near and far, is about one-quarter of that used by the canners. 



210 



