250 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW Til KM 



necessary, as almost all can be done by summer pruning until the trees get 

 so old that they need the old wood taken out. This can be more readily done 

 without damage to the trees where from 24 to 30 limbs are grown, than in 

 the old method of leaving only eight or ten large limbs. 



When it becomes necessary to take out old wood as the best fruit grows 

 on new wood a few limbs can be taken out each year until a full top of new 

 wood is again made. 



Winter Pruning. The evident defect of many old apricot 

 orchards is the failure of the low-bearing wood and the thicket of 

 brush near the ends of long bare limbs. Such trees need renewal 

 of the top by vigorous winter pruning, which should preferably be 

 done toward the close of the dormant season rather than early in 

 the winter as formerly. Old and unprofitable trees have been 

 reclaimed in this way. 



Winter pruning is still the regular method in some parts of 

 the State where the conditions do not favor excessive growth of 

 the tree and where summer pruning does not seem to be called for. 

 The practice is to remove half or two-thirds of the new growth 

 and thin out, by removing entirely enough new and old wood to 

 prevent the tree from becoming thick and brushy. 



THINNING THE APRICOT 



All free-fruiting varieties of the apricot must be thinned to 

 secure size acceptable to purchasers. It is the experience of the old- 

 est growers that though thinning is an expensive operation, it is 

 very profitable. When half the fruit is taken off in thinning, the 

 remainder reaches as large aggregate weight as though the whole 

 were allowed to mature and the thinned fruit is worth about twice 

 as much per pound. Even if less weight is secured, and in most 

 cases the purpose should be to get less weight, the tree is spared 

 the exhaustion of overbearing and the owner escapes a year of little' 

 or no fruit. A discussion of this subject is given in a previous 

 chapter. 



Where conditions are favorable, the tree will set more fruit than 

 it can bring to full size, and for this reason thinning or spacing the 

 fruit on the twigs by hand-picking, while the fruit is about the size 

 of a pigeon's egg, is almost a universal practice among the best 

 commercial growers. This is necessary to bring the individual fruits 

 to the diameters required by canners or overland shippers, and 

 which they scale in price according to size : Extras, 2 l /\. inches ; 

 No. 1, 2 inches; No. 2, \y 2 inches. Fruit of less size is hard of sale 

 unless the crop happens to be very small. It has also been found 

 that thinning to regulate size is quite as important when the fruit 

 is to be dried by the grower as when sold as fresh fruit. 



