CHAPTER XVIII 

 THE APRICOT 



California has nearly three million apricot trees which stand 

 in the open air without protection of any kind and bear large, 

 luscious fruit. That apricot trees can do this constitutes one of the 

 unique features of California fruit growing and proclaims it differ- 

 ent from fruit growing in other States, for, excepting a few locali- 

 ties in other parts of the Pacific slope, California has a monopoly 

 of commercial apricot growing, and nowhere else in the world does 

 the fruit attain such commercial importance. Although the apri- 

 cot has been grown here from the earliest days of the American 

 occupation, and though since the opening of the export trade in 

 canned and dried fruits, the apricot has gained in popularity, the 

 planting of apricot orchards has not proceeded recently with great 

 rapidity, although indications are that our distant patrons are only 

 just beginning to recognize the desirability of the fruit, and their 

 demands will make it well-nigh impossible for us to extend our 

 production beyond profitable limits. The reason why the apricot 

 has not kept pace with the advance of some other fruits in Cali- 

 fornia is to be found in certain limitations of suitable area which 

 will be mentioned presently. 



Though the apricot has some pests and diseases to contend 

 with, they have thus far proved slight evils, and the tree is gen- 

 erally regarded as one of our healthiest and most vigorous, 

 as it certainly is one of our most beautiful orchard trees. 

 It is long-lived and attains great size. There are here and 

 there groups of trees nearly half a century old which have a height 

 of fifty feet ; the main trunks life forest oaks, and the first branches 

 or limbs twelve and fifteen inches through. The smaller limbs and 

 foliage are at least fifty feet across ; a half dozen of them shade 

 an acre of ground and they sometimes yield per tree a ton of fruit. 

 But such trees do not meet orchard requirements and are only 

 mentioned to show what the tree may do when it has its own way. 



The apricot is a rapid grower and an early and heavy bearer in 

 California. In the interior and in the southern coast valleys it 

 yields a paying crop during its third summer in the orchard, and 

 from eight to fourteen tons to the acre was reached for several 

 years in succession, in Judge Blackwood's old orchard of Royal 

 apricots, in Alameda County. The trees, even of some varieties 

 which are uncertain bearers, are large and vigorous growers, and 

 have warranted the suggestion that there is a use for the apricot 



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