186 HORTICULTURE FOR SCHOOLS 



excellent when ripe, and has a peculiar flavor of its own. It 

 makes a fine dried product which is free from the leathery 

 skin and heavy pubescence characteristic of the dried peach. 

 The properly dried apricot maintains its distinctive flavor. 



The tree, with its reddish-brown bark and heavy foliage of 

 deep green heart-shaped leaves, is one of the most beautiful in 

 the orchard. It is a strong vigorous grower. When budded on 

 peach root, the apricot thrives on light deep loams. For the 

 heavier loams it should be budded on apricot stock. Attempts 

 have been made with various degrees of success to grow the 

 apricot on heavy soils by budding it on Myrobalan or other 

 plum stock. 



Gum disease, brown-rot, and shot-hole fungus are common 

 diseases of the apricot. 



281. Plums and prunes. The plum is spoken of by Pliny 

 in such a way as to indicate that, at the time he wrote, it was 

 a comparatively new fruit. It had probably been brought 

 to Greece and Rome a short time before by some of the raiding 

 hordes from the region of the Caucasus and the Caspian; for 

 there is evidence to support the theory that it first became 

 domesticated somewhere in this region. In America, the 

 plum had begun to assume some importance as a cultivated 

 fruit by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Three 

 types of plums, the European, the Japanese, and the native, 

 are grown in North America. 



The Japanese plums are native of China. This species was 

 introduced into America from Japan about 1870, and began 

 to attract attention a few years later. By 1880 it was widely 

 propagated. While the tree is adapted to a wide range of 

 conditions, its early blooming habit renders the blossoms 

 liable to frost-injury. On this account it cannot succeed in 

 all sections where the European plum thrives, but owing to 

 its large attractive fruit, its resistance to plant disease, and 

 its early-bearing habit, it is grown extensively in North 

 America. 



