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ROEDING'S FRUIT GROWERS' GUIDE 



squeezing them slightly, they fall apart readily, the 

 trays should be stacked one above another, just as soon 

 as the fruit has become slightly warmed up. After a 

 few days the prunes should be placed in bins on wooden 

 floors, where they have access to the air but covered 

 in such a manner that they will not be rained on. There 

 are a number of solutions for preparing prunes for 

 packing commercially. Probably the simplest dip is a 

 solution made by dissolving five pounds of salt to one 

 hundred gallons of water. As a result of this dip the 

 fruit takes on a bright, dark, glossy hue. The solution 

 should be used hot and the prunes should have the sur- 

 plus moisture dried off before packing in the boxes. 



COMMERCIAL VARIETIES FOR DRYING 



French, French Improved, Imperial Epineuse, Robe 

 de Sargent, Sugar. 



COMMERCIAL VARIETIES FOR SHIPPING 



Conquest, Fellenberg, German, Hungarian, Silver, 

 Tragedy, Standard. 



PERIOD OF RIPENING 

 June 



July 



Tragedy. 



Sugar. 



August 

 Conquest, Fellenberg, German, Hungarian, Standard. 



September 



French, Improved French, Imperial Epineuse, Robe 

 de Sargent, Silver. 



When you get a tree to produce fruit from a point close to 

 the main body to the very tip ends, the demonstration 

 of successful pruning is complete. 



THE APRICOT 



The apricot is a native of Asia Minor and the higher 

 regions of Central Asia. As a commercial proposition 

 California has practically a monopoly of the apricot 

 culture. No other section of the Union produces it in 

 quantities at so small an expense and so little risk of 

 failure in a crop. In appearance it is the handsomest of 

 all stone fruits and contains less acid. For canning, 

 evaporating and drying purposes, and for use in the 

 fresh state, the fruit can hardly be excelled. It seems 

 particularly adapted to the coast counties, where the 

 fruit attains the largest size and the highest flavor. In 

 the interior valleys it has a distinct advantage, in that 

 it ripens its fruits fully a month earlier than in the 

 cooler sections of the state. A few years ago the only 

 value the apricot pits possessed was for fuel, but today 

 there is no waste of any part of this all-around fruit. 

 The pits sell readily at $40 per ton. Special machinery 

 has been devised for cracking the pits and extracting 

 the kernels. A very fine edible oil is made from the 

 kernels. During the period of the war the shells came 

 into use for the manufacture of gas masks, the United 

 States Government taking the entire available supply. 

 These were carbonized and then subjected to a secret 

 process. Apricot pits, peach pits and cocoanut shells 

 were in great demand because of their effectiveness in 

 absorbing the noxious vapors better than any other 

 known material. 



STOCKS FOR THE APRICOT 



It is not surprising that in California, where such 

 great strides have been made in commercial fruit grow- 

 ing, that the stocks best constituted to certain soils 

 and locations should be in demand by growers. 

 In order to meet these conditions it has been found 

 necessary to bud the apricot on peach, apricot and 

 myrobolan roots. Some growers even go so far as to 

 want the apricot on almond root. The apricot has no 

 affinity for this stock and it would be dangerous prac- 

 tice to use it, because the trees are liable to break off on 

 the slightest provocation. On deep well-drained loamy 

 soils the apricot makes a fine vigorous tree. The peach 

 root has a much wider adaptability and will do well on 

 a greater variety of soils, even those which may become 

 very wet during the early spring months. In soils 

 which are heavy and very retentive of moisture and 

 where the water may stand for any length of time the 

 Myrobolan root should be used exclusively. The trees 

 do not attain so great a size on this root but they are 

 longer-lived, which is a good point in their favor. For 

 commercial planting the apricot should never be set 

 closer than twenty-four feet apart and on deep rich 

 soils, due to its faculty of being a strong, straggly grower 

 it would seem advisable to plant the trees either 

 twenty-eight or thirty feet apart. 



PRUNING 



The very fact that the apricot trees are strong grow- 

 ers obviously makes it necessary to prune the trees 

 carefully for at least the first four years of their exist- 

 ence. The trees should be cut back to twenty inches 

 after they are set. It is safe to cut trees back to this 



