LOCATIONS FOR THE APRICOT 215 



up and endeavor to reach the same direction. This is patent in every 

 tree, and in the long orchard rows is very striking." This is taken 

 to signify the special liking of the tree for the vicinity of the coast 

 if spring frosts are not too frequent. It is well enough to inter- 

 pret it that way, providing one does not lose sight of the perfect 

 success of the apricot in the interior as well. It is true that the fruit 

 near the coast attains higher color, and the less rapid growth of 

 the tree makes it somewhat easier to handle, but the earlier ripen- 

 ing in the interior, coupled with freedom from fog and constant 

 sunshine for drying, are points of the highest industrial importance. 

 The fact is that the apricot has a very wide range in California, and 

 though the trees have been cut out at some points it has been chiefly 

 because too frosty locations have been chosen or because some other 

 fruit has seemed to be locally more desirable, for one reason or 

 another. 



In some valleys in the upper part of the State opening directly 

 to the ocean, there is sometimes complaint of the cracking of the 

 fruit on the sunny side. The alternation of sunshine and fog seems 

 to have something to do with this, for in favorable years, when fogs 

 are few, the fruit is sound. 



Locations for early ripening of the apricot are to be chosen with 

 reference to the influence of topography, as laid down in Chapter I. 

 In a general way, it may be said, in regions directly subject to coast 

 influences, both in Northern and Southern California, the apricot is 

 late. On the west side of the Sacramento Valley, on slightly elevated 

 places, in small, hill-locked valleys, the earliest apricots have been 

 grown for years. Protected situations in the lower foothills of the 

 Sierra Nevada, on the eastern rim of both the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin Valleys, share in the production of the earliest ripening 

 fruit. There is probably about a month's difference in the ripening 

 of the same variety in the earliest situations and in the coast valleys 

 of both Northern and Southern California. 



In the interior of Southern California, inirrigated situations, on 

 the west side of the Colorado River and in adjacent parts of Arizona, 

 apricots rival in earliness the product of the famous valleys of in- 

 terior Northern California. 



Recently a measure of success with the apricot has been attained 

 in irrigated sections of Eastern Washington, Idaho and Utah. If 

 winter temperatures are low enough to keep the tree dormant and 

 yet not low enough to injure the fruit buds and frosts are absent 

 after growth begins, success ought to be attainable. 



STOCKS AND SOILS FOR THE APRICOT 



Because of the success with which the apricot can be budded on 

 various stocks, it has a wide range in adaptation to different soils. 

 Budded on the peach root it may be grown successfully on the light, 

 warm, well-drained loams in which the peach delights. The peach 

 root is, in fact, largely used for the apricot. It gives the tree quick 

 growth and early fruiting, and the fact that the gopher does not 



