80 



APRICOT 



APRICOT 



necessary to catch the insects for three to six weeks, two 

 or three times a week, or, perhaps, even every day. The 

 work must be done early in the morning, while the cur- 

 culio is indisposed to fly. The operation consists in 

 knocking the insects from the tree by a 

 quick jar or shake, catching them upon a 

 white sheet or in a canvas hopper. The 

 catcher most commonly used in western New 

 York is a strong cloth hopper mounted upon 

 a wheelbarrow-like frame, and running upon 

 two wheels. The hopper converges into a tin 

 box, into which the curcuUos roll as they fall 

 upon the sheet. One man wheels the device, 

 by barrow-like handles, under the tree, then 

 drops the handles and jars the tree ; or some- 

 times two men go with a machine, one wheel- 

 ing it and the other jarring the trees. This 

 device is used extensively by practical fruit- 

 growers for catching the curcnlio on the vari- 

 ous stone fruits. 



It is not yet certain what are the best stocks 

 for apricots in the East, in commercial or- 

 chards. It is probable that no one stock is 

 best under all circumstances. The apricot 

 root itself seems to be impatient of our cold 

 and wet soils, which are drenched by the drain- 

 age of winter. It needs a very deep and rich 

 soil, but it is doubtful if it is safe for the 

 East. The common plum (not myrobalan) is 

 an excellent stock for plum soils, and the apri- 

 cot does well either nursery-budded or top- 

 worked upon it. Peach is probably the com- 

 'monest stock, and, for peach soils, it is prob- 

 ably the best that can be used. If the apricot 

 thrives upon various stocks, it is thereby 

 adapted to many soils. 



The apricot is often trained on walls, where 

 the fruit reaches the highest perfection. Care 

 should be taken that the wall 

 does not face to the west or the 

 south, or the early-forced flowers 

 may be caught by frost. An over- 

 hanging cornice will aid greatly 

 in protecting from frost. 



L. H. B. 

 The Apricot in Califoenia. 

 —The apricot is one of the lead- 

 ing commercial fruits of Cali- 

 fornia. It was introduced by the 

 Mission Fathers, for Vancouver 

 found it at the Santa Clara Mis- 

 sion in 1792. However, there is 

 no relation between this early 

 introduction and the expansion 

 which quickly followed the Amer- 

 ican occupation, because the Mis- 

 sion Fathers had only seedling fruits, while the early 

 American planters, shortly beJEore the gold discovery, 

 introduced the best French and English varieties, and 

 were delighted to find that these sorts, usually given 

 some protection in the Old World, grew with surpris- 

 ing thrift of tree and size of fruit in valley situations 

 in California in the open air. Upon these facts the apri- 

 cot rose to wide popularity. The acreage has steadily 

 increased during the last fifty years, and with particu- 

 larly swift rate during the last twenty years, until the 

 number of trees at the present date { 1899) is about three 

 millions, occupying upwards of forty thousand acres of 

 land. This notable increase, and the present prospect of 

 much greater extension, is based upon the demand which 

 has arisen for the fruit in its fresh, canned, dried and 

 crystallized forms, in all the regions of the United States, 

 in England and on the Continent, where, by reason of 

 its superior size and acceptable manner of curing, it has 

 achieved notable popularity. The year 1897 was the 

 greatest thus far in amount of dried product i-ealized, 

 viz.: 30,000,000 pounds. The year 1895 was greatest in 

 amount of canned product, which reached upwards of 

 360,000 cases, each containing two dozen 2}^-pound cans. 

 The shipment of fresh apricots out of California during 

 the summer of 1897 was 177 carloads. 



The chief part of the apricot crop of California is 

 grown in the interior valleys. In the low places in 



115. Fruit-buds of the 

 apricot. 



Borne beside the leaf- 

 bud, as on the peach, 

 and also on spurs. 



these valleys, however, the fruit is apt to be injured and 

 sometimes almost wholly destroyed by spring frosts, al- 

 though the trees make excellent growth. In foothill 

 situations adjacent to these valleys, there is also serious 

 danger of frost above an elevation of about fifteen hun- 

 dred feet above sea level, and the tree is rarely planted 

 for commercial purposes. In southern California the 

 apricot succeeds both In the coast and interior valleys. 

 But along the coast northward, excepting the very im- 

 portant producing regions of the Alameda and Santa 

 Clara valleys, eastward and southward from the Bay of 

 San Francisco, the apricot is but little grown, owing to 

 frost troubles. In respect to these, the apricot is some- 

 what less subject to harm than the almond, but it Is 

 less hardy than the peach, and has, therefore, a much 

 narrower range of adaptation. The average date of the 

 blooming of apricot varieties is about two weeks later 

 than that of the almonds. The apricot is adapted to a 

 wide range of soils, because to the rather heavy, moist 

 loams which its own root tolerates, it adds the lighter 

 tastes of the peach root, upon which it is very largely 

 propagated. However, attempts to carry the apricot 

 upon heavier, moister soils by working it upon the plum 

 root have not been very successful, owing to the dwarf- 

 ing of the tree; and the movement toward the light, dry 

 loams, by working upon the almond root, has failed be- 

 cause the attachment is insecure, and the trees are very 

 apt to be snapped off at the joining, even though they 

 may attain bearing age before the mishap occurs. The 

 apricot root itself is a favorite morsel with rodents, and 

 is for that reason not largely used. Our mainstay for the 

 apricot, then, is the peach root, and the soils which this 

 root enjoys in localities sufdciently frost-free are, there- 

 fore, to a great extent the measure of our apricot area. 



Apricot trees are produced by budding on peach or 

 apricot seedlings during their first summer's growth in 

 the nursery row, from pits planted when the ground is 

 moist and warm, at any time during the preceding win- 

 ter. When there is a great demand for trees, planting 

 in orchard is sometimes done with dormant buds, but 

 ordinarily the trees are allowed to make one summer's 

 growth in the nursery. The trees branch during the first 

 year's growth from the bud, and usually come to the 

 planter with a good choice of low-starting branches, from 

 which to shape the low-headed tree which is universally 

 preferred. The method of securing such a tree is iden- 

 tical with that already described for the almond, but the 

 treatment of the tree after reaching bearing age, in its 

 third year, is very different from the after treatment of 

 the almond. The apricot is a ram- 

 pant grower and most profuse 

 bearer. Unless kept continually in 

 check it will quickly rush out of 

 reach, and will destroy its low shoots 

 and spurs by the dense shade of its 

 thick, beautiful foliage. There is 

 continually necessary, then, a cer- 

 tain degree of thinning of the sur- 

 plus shoots and shortening of the 

 new growth to continue the system 

 of low branching, to relieve the 

 tree from an excess of bearing 

 wood, and to avoid small fruit and 

 exhaustion of the tree, resulting in 

 alternate years of bearing. In the 

 coast regions, where the tree makes 

 moderate wood growth, it can be 

 kept in good form and bearing by 

 regular winter pruning. In warmer 

 regions, where the tendency is to 

 exuberant wood growth, the main 

 pruning is done in the summer, 

 immediately after the fruit is 

 gathered. This has a tendency to 

 check wood growth and promote 

 fruit bearing, and where the main 

 cutting is done in the summer, win- 

 ter pruning is reduced to thinning 

 out shoots, to prevent the tree from becoming too dens© 

 and to lessen the work of hand-thinning of the fruit later 

 on. In addition, however, to the most intelligent prun- 

 ing, much fruit must be removed by hand when there 

 is a heavy set of it, in order to bring the fruit to a size 



116. Flowers of the 

 apricot. 



