CHAPTER XVIII 



THE APRICOT 



California has nearly four 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 growing in other States, for, excepting a few localities in other 

 parts of the Pacific slope, California has a monopoly of commercial 

 apricot growing, 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 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 recently 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 extend our production beyond profitable 

 limits. The reason the apricot has not kept pace with the advance 

 of some other fruits in California is to be found in certain limita- 

 tions 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 re- 

 garded 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 were in 1900 here and there groups of trees 

 half a century old with a height of fifty feet ; the main trunks like 

 forest oaks, and the first branches of 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 some- 

 times yielded 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 un- 

 certain bearers, are large and vigorous growers, and have warranted 

 the suggestion that there is a use for the apricot tree for a wind- 

 break for the protection of other trees. The trees may be planted 

 near together in strong land, and make a summer 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. 



