334 



APRICOT 



APRICOT 



fancy fruit, and therefore, should be neatly packed in 

 small and tasty packages. 



The varieties mostly in demand in the eastern states 

 in order of preference are: Moorpark, Harris, Alexis, 

 Montgamet, Budd, Early Golden, St. Ambroise, 

 Alexander and Peach. The Royal and Superb are grown 

 to some extent. Of the above-mentioned varieties, the 

 Harris, St. Ambroise, Montgamet, and Early 

 Golden are early as regards season of ripen- 

 ing; the Peach and Moorpark are medium; 

 the Alexander, Alexis and Budd are late. 

 The Alexander, Alexis, Budd and some 

 others belong to the Russian race. Fig. 284 

 shows a good-shaped apricot. 



The apricot is propagated by budding or 

 grafting the desired varieties on the peach 

 or plum stock. On its own root the apricot 

 seems to be less successful, probably because 

 of the peculiar soil-requirements that it 

 demands. The peach seems to give a better 

 union and consequently a better stand, 

 whereas the plum stock gives a tree that is 

 hardier, longer lived, and less subject to 

 attacks of borers. Both Myrobalan and 

 Domestica stocks are used, the preference 

 being for the latter. 



The most serious enemy of the apricot is 

 the curculio, the same insect that attacks 

 the fruits of plum and peach. This insect 

 seems to have a particular fondness for the 

 apricot, and as the fruit sets very early, the 

 crop may be expected to be destroyed un- 

 less the most vigilant means are employed. 

 The foliage of the apricot, as in the case of 

 the peach, is especially sensitive to the 

 arsenical sprays and therefore entomolo- 

 gists have hesitated to recommend 

 paris green and arsenate of lead 

 for the control of the curculio. 

 The work of W. M. Scott and A. L. 

 Quaintance, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, has 

 shown, however, that arsenate of 

 lead in combination with self- 

 boiled lime-sulfur is successful in 

 controlling this pest on the peach. 

 It is probable that the mixture 

 will be equally .successful in con- 

 trolling the curculio on the apricot. 

 They recommend the use of two 

 pounds of arsenate of lead com- 

 bined with fifty gallons of self- 

 boiled lime-sulfur applied as follows: 



First application. About the time the calyces, or 



shucks, are shedding from the young fruit. 

 Second application. Two or three weeks later, or 



about one month after the falling of the petals. 

 Another method of control of this insect is by jarring 

 the trees, in the same way as with plums and peaches, 

 but the work must be even more thoroughly done than 

 with those fruits. The jarring should begin as soon as 

 the blossoms fall, and continue as long as the insects are 

 numerous enough to do serious damage. It will usually 

 be necessary to catch the insects for three to six 

 weeks, two or three times a week, or perhaps even 

 every day. The work must be performed early in the 

 morning, while the curculio is indisposed to fly. The 

 operation consists in knocking the insects from the 

 tree by a quick jar or shake, catching them on a white 

 sheet or in a canvas hopper. The catcher formerly 

 used in western New York was a strong cloth hopper 

 mounted on a wheelbarrow-like frame, and run on two 

 wheels. The hopper converged into a tin box, into which 

 the curculios rolled as they fell on the sheet. One man 

 wheeled the device, by barrow-like handles, under the 

 tree, then dropped the handles and jarred the tree; or 



281. Fruit- buds of 

 the apricot. Borne be- 

 side the leaf-bud, as 

 on the peach, and also 

 on spurs. 



sometimes two men went with a machine, one wheeling 

 it and the other jarring the trees. If the work of spray- 

 ing, as above recommended, is done thoroughly, it will 

 probably not be necessary to use this jarring device in 

 addition; and the device is now going out of use. 



The apricot is often trained on walls, where the fruit 

 reaches the highest perfection. Care should be taken 

 that the wall does not face the east or the south, or the 

 early-forced flowers may be caught by frost. An over- 

 hanging-cornice will aid greatly in " protecting from 



frOSt " C. S. WlLSON.f 



The apricot in California is one of the leading com- 

 mercial fruits. It was apparently introduced by the 

 Mission Fathers, for Vancouver found it at the Santa 

 Clara Mission in 1792. However, there is no relation 

 between this early introduction and the expansion t hat 

 quickly followed the American occupation, because the 

 Mission Fathers had only seedling fruits, while the 

 early American planters, shortly before the gold dis- 

 covery, introduced the best French and English varie- 

 ties, and were delighted to find that these sorts, usu- 

 ally given some protection in the Old World, grew with 

 surprising thrift of tree and size of fruit in valley sit- 

 uations in California in the open air. Upon these facts 

 the apricot rose to wide popularity. The acreage has 

 steadily increased during the last fifty years, and with 

 particularly swift rate during the last twenty years, 

 until the number of trees reported in 1899 was about 

 three millions, occupying upwards of forty thousand 

 acres of land. Since then, however, the acreage has not 

 increased, because the crop is irregular on account of 

 frost injuries in some districts. The fruit is sold fresh, 

 canned, dried and in crystallized forms, in all the re- 

 gions of the United States, in England and on the 

 Continent, where, by reason of its superior size and 

 acceptable manner of curing, it has achieved notable 

 popularity. The year 1905 was the greatest thus far 

 in amount of dried product realized, viz., 36,000,000 

 pounds. The year 1911 was greatest in amount of 

 canned product, which reached upwards of 758,325 

 cases, each containing two dozen 2 ^2-pound cans. The 

 shipment of fresh apricots out of California during the 

 summer of 1910 was 290 carloads. 



The chief part of the apricot crop of California is 

 grown in the interior valleys. In the low places in 

 these yalleys, however, the fruit is liable to be injured and 

 sometimes almost wholly destroyed by spring frosts, 

 although the trees make excellent growth. In foothill 

 situations adjacent to these valleys, there is also serious 

 danger of frost above an elevation of about 1,500 feet 

 above sea-level, and the tree is rarely planted for com- 

 mercial purposes. In southern California the apricot 

 succeeds both in the coast and 

 interior valleys. But along the 

 coast northward, excepting the 

 very important producing regions 

 of the Alameda and Santa Clara 

 valleys, eastward, and southward 

 from the Bay of San Francisco, 

 the apricot is but. little grown, 

 owing to frost troubles. In re- 

 spect to these, the apricot is some- 

 what less subject to harm than 

 the almond, but it is less hardy 

 than the peach, and has, therefore, 

 a much narrower range of adapta- 

 tion. The average date of the 

 blooming of apricot varieties is about two weeks later 

 than that of the almonds. The apricot is adapted to a 

 wide range of soils, because to the rather heavy, moist 

 loams which its own root tolerates, it adds the lighter 

 tastes of the peach root, upon which it is very largely 

 propagated. However, attempts to carry the apricot 

 upon heavier, moister soils by working it upon the plum 

 root have not been very successful, owing to the dwarf- 



282. Young apricots 

 shedding the ring. 



