204 Planting the Apricot. 
ing blooming. And in the parts of the State most subject 
to frost, exposures should be selected in accordance with the 
principles laid down in Chapter I, which treats of topography 
as related to fruit growing. 
In securing the advantage of the earliest ripening even in 
the earliest districts, elevation is of great importance. The first 
apricots of the season for a number of years have come from an 
elevated ridge, rising in the center of Pleasant’s Valley, in 
‘Solano County. This ridge has higher hills but a short distance 
away on both east and west, which protect it from cold winds, 
and on all sides there is low ground, to which cold air can freely 
descend. In this spot apricots and other fruits ripen several 
days earlier than on other lands but little removed. 
PLANTING THE APRICOT. 
The apricot becomes a large tree in California, as has 
already been remarked, and it should be given plenty of room. 
Twenty-four feet each way is certainly a minimum distance for 
so large and long-lived a tree, and some orchards have been 
planted at thirty feet. If nearer planting is done it should be 
with reference to subsequent removal of part of the trees. 
Twenty feet apart, with later removal of half the trees to double 
the distance, or such an arrangement as proposed by H. D. 
Briggs, of Azusa, should be adopted :— 
In setting out an orchard it seems advisable to double set the ground, 
as an apricot twelve to fifteen years old should have not less than 800 to 
g0o square feet of ground. This can easily be obtained by setting 20x20 
feet; then when nine or ten years old remove every other tree, making 
them forty feet in the row, with rows twenty feet apart, of course taking 
them out diagonally. The trees will very quickly tell the orchardist when 
they are too thick. When 'the outside rows have twice the fruit of those 
inside, it is quite evident that the time spent in pruning, etc., on half the 
trees is worse than wasted. I have cut roots 4o feet from a nine-year-old 
tree. 
The apricot makes such rapid growth and so much depends 
upon giving it proper form, as will be seen presently, that one 
year’s growth is all that should be allowed in the nursery. Some 
growers would rather have a dormant bud than a two-year-old 
tree, and cases have been reported of trees from dormant buds 
outgrowing yearling trees planted at the same time in the same 
orchard. But in growing from a dormant bud in the orchard 
care should be taken to develop a short trunk, with properly- 
spaced branches, by pinching the side shoots near the ground. 
Trees started from dormant bud and allowed to branch from the 
ground, have developed very unsatisfactory form, and have, in 
some situations, lost their lower branches by the wind. The tree 
should have a low head, but a short trunk seems to give a better 
tree, and more elasticity to the branches. 
