THE APRICOT. 171 



deteriorated — so much so, that I doubt whether it is worth growing any 

 kind under glass except Coe's Golden Drop. Perhaps the overbearing 

 of the tree is one cause, and that may be the reason why the flavour 

 of foreign plums is so indifferent compared with those grown in 

 England. A green-gage grown in a pot is intensely sweet, but has 

 none of that fine green-gage flavour to be found in fruit grown on a 

 bush, or standard. 



My collection of plums are grown, some as standards, which do 

 best ; the remainder as bushes. The shoots of the latter are stopped 

 in June and pruned back in winter. Pruned trees have a tendency 

 to throw out long sappy shoots, which rob the tree and render 

 it unproductive. In some years we are troubled greatly with large 

 green aphides, which cover the under-side of the leaves so thickly 

 that not a pin can be placed between the creatures. I do not think 

 plum-trees like much pruning, as un pruned standards certainly do 

 better than those which are cut to any extent. Rivers recommends a 

 biennial lifting, but this is really a great undertaking when there are 

 a hundred or more large trees. 



THE APRICOT. 



The Apricot is a fruit of great excellence. In this country it 

 will not bear fruit as a standard, it requires a wall: but we have no 

 walls, therefore we are restricted to its cultivation in the orchard-house. 

 Again we are in a difficulty, as the apricot does not like artificial 

 cultivation, and is extremely difficult to force. 



Several kinds of apricots have been tried out of doors, as bushes or 

 trees, but they have never yielded any fruit in my garden, although 

 they blossom in great, abundance : we may assume that in our climate 

 they will not bear out of doors. 



In the orchard-house we have found the Peach Apricot to be as good 

 as any. The Moorpark Apricot, which is perhaps the richest of all, 

 has the peculiarity of losing branches without any assignable cause. 

 Large branches sometimes laden with fruit suddenly die, and hence 



