24 



ROEDING'S FRUIT GROWERS' GUIDE 



exceedingly satisfactory. It will be necessary after a 

 period of years to head in these trees very severely to 

 develop new wood in the trees handled in this manner. 



THINNING 



The proper time to do this is just before the kernel 

 gets hard. It is a very important piece of work, which 

 should be religiously performed, when the trees give 

 evidence of carrying more fruit than they should. The 

 fruit should be thinned to.be from three to four inches 

 apart. Sometimes the ground under a tree may be 

 literally carpeted with green fruit, but even this should 

 not deter the owner from his task if he wants first-class 

 fruit. 



GATHERING 



The time to gather apricots for canning is when they 

 have reached their size, are firm and show a slight tinge 

 of green close to the stem end. For drying they should 

 b>e somewhat further advanced. The canneries prefer 

 fruit which will run twelve apricots to the pound and 

 less. The larger the size, the higher the price. For 

 drying it is necessary to halve the fruit first and extract 

 the pit. Prune trays are used for drying apricots. The 

 very fact that apricots ripen so far in advance of prunes 

 and that there is very little danger from rain, should 

 cause prune growers to confine at least part of their 

 acreage to apricots. One year with another, there is 

 comparatively little difference in the profits realized. 

 The filled trays are run into the sulphur house on trucks 



designed for this purpose. They remain in the fumes 

 for at least four hours. A good rule to go by is to watch 

 the fruit and whenever a good part of the cups are 

 filled with juice it is an indication that the fruit has 

 been sulphured sufficiently. The sulphuring brightens 

 up the fruit, causes it to retain its color and prevents 

 it- from being infested by insects. The time of drying 

 varies from six to eight days, depending on the weather. 

 Whenever the fruit shows that the moisture is prac- 

 tically out of it and is still quite supple, stack the trays 

 and permit the drying to continue from this point in 

 the shade. After the fruit is cured it is shoved off the 

 trays with wooden paddles into sweat or lug boxes. 



IRRIGATION 



Even in the coast counties, where there is an abun- 

 dance of rainfall during the winter months, it is very 

 important indeed to be in a position to irrigate an 

 apricot orchard. Our climate is so- arid, there being 

 no rain from May to October, that it is necessary to 

 supply moisture artificially to maintain vigorous 

 thrifty trees. While the trees are young from three to 

 four irrigations are necessary. One, and at .the outside 

 two, irrigations will be all that will be required when the 

 trees have reached a bearing age. Winter irrigation, or 

 rather applying water in the late fall, has a very bene- 

 ficial effect, and this, if followed by an irrigation just 

 before thinning, will be the means of causing the fruit 

 to run into larger sizes. Cultivation following an 



A four-year-old-Peach tree with the leaves stripped off from one side. It is loaded down with a heavy crop' of 

 uniform sized peaches. Pruning and thinning combined are responsible for such results. 



