362 [ THE APRICOT 



that they dry and drop off in early spring without 

 blooming. The flower buds of the apricot, particularly 

 those of the upper branches are also liable to suffer in the 

 same manner and to drop off in spring without blooming 

 at all, but reference is here made to the not uncommon 

 fact that the apricot may be entirely covered with well 

 formed flowers but no fruit is set, although the blooming 

 period may have coincided with a spell of very favourable 

 weather. It has been surmised that the failure may be 

 ascribed to cold weather in winter or to some other cause 

 of weakness such as the exhaustion of the soil induced by 

 an intensive cultivation of vegetables etc. but in the 

 absence of precise information on the matter, it is only 

 possible to recommend good cultivation, with deep tillage 

 and manuring. In fact it is known that the apricot 

 responds at once with greater vigour and a notable 

 increase in production if the soil is well trenched and 

 manured, and perhaps of all stone fruits the apricot and 

 the cherry are the least liable to injury from liberal 

 dressings of organic manures. 



For the apricot grafted on plum stock deep tillage 

 and deep trenching are as little recommendable as they are 

 for the plum grown on the same stock for the reason that 

 the wounds on the upper roots which are unavoidably 

 produced by the operation may cause an undue develop- 

 ment of suckers which exhaust the tree, and the manure 

 is therefore better applied as a surface dressing repeated 

 every other year and digged in late in autumn or in 

 winter. However, as the apricot grown on own roots 

 rarely throws up any suckers, it is possible in this case 

 to have recourse to deep tillage with manuring as a 

 corrective or remedy against unproductiveness. 



Cross pollination affords another means of com- 

 bating this uncertainty of production in the apricot, as it 

 is in the case of most other fruit trees. For this reason 

 the plantation should consist of alternate rows of two or 

 three sorts, selecting one or two sorts of the earlier and 



