180 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



industry than the mountains because transportation 

 facilities for shipment are vastly better, but as the 

 State advances the mountain districts will be em- 

 ployed in this production much more largely. 



Apricot trees stand in the open air without protec- 

 tion of any kind and bear large luscious fruit. Ex- 

 cepting a few localities in other parts of the Pacific 

 Slope, California has a monopoly of commercial apri- 

 cot-growing. However, the apricot does not find all 

 parts of the State suited to it. The whole north- 

 west quarter north of San Francisco Bay and west 

 of the high ridges of the Coast Eange does not 

 grow apricots commercially, nor does this fruit any- 

 where ascend above an elevation of 1500 feet on the 

 foothills. It is particularly a fruit of the protected 

 coast valleys south and east of the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco to the southern end of the State; also of the 

 great interior valleys and lower foothills, avoiding, 

 however, the low places in these valleys where spring 

 frosts may injure the crop, though the tree is not 

 harmed. A point of advantage with the apricot, as 

 with the pear and peach and to a less extent with 

 the nectarine and plum, is that it has three great 

 lines of demand: First, as fresh fruit, second, 

 canned, third, as dried fruit. Some counties pro- 

 ducing apricots largely are 500 miles apart and their 

 success shows how widely suitable locations are dis- 

 tributed over the State. 



The cherry is one of the lesser orchard fruits of 

 California because the regions which favor it are 

 fewer and its commercial field is less, but in size and 



