268 Apricots. 



Australian rubber tree often called the Moreton Bay fig. This does 

 not produce the rubber of commerce, but it is one of the grandest 

 trees in cultivation where a large and spreading shade tree is 

 needed. The smaller leaved variety is Ficus australis and is more 

 desirable for a large shrub and for grouping than for shade. 



The Australian rubber tree is planted extensively on the side- 

 walks and roadways of Melbourne, a city famous for her magnifi- 

 cent avenues. On the park charity tract last spring a double row 

 of 100 of these trees was set, which, I believe, is the only long 

 avenue of them in the state. The cost has been a drawback to ex- 

 tensive planting, while the climate of northern California is too 

 severe for successful cultivation on streets. Ten years hence these 

 rows will form grand avenues of shade, fully fifty feet high. 



The best Ficus for planting within the gardens of the city, un- 

 less the grounds are spacious, is the true India rubber tree, the ficus 

 elastica. It is of smaller growth yet, branching with the most 

 beautiful foliage of all the rubbers, shading from the darkest green 

 to russet brown. Miss K. O. Sessions. 



APRICOTS. 



California is peculiarly adapted for the growth of the apricot. 

 Although the apricot has been grown here from the earliest days of 

 the American occupation, and though since the opening of the ex- 

 port trade in canned and dried fruits, the planting of apricot 

 orchards has proceeded with great rapidity, present indications are 

 that our distant patrons are only just beginning to recognize the 

 desirability of the fruit, and that their demands will make it well- 

 nigh impossible for us to extend our production beyond profitable 

 limits. 



The apricot is comparatively a long lived tree as well as a rapid 

 grower and heavy bearer in California. A paying crop is usually 

 secured the third year from planting. As a windbreak the apricot 

 is a complete success. Most all trees shrink away from the trade- 

 winds but the apricot leans a little toward it and is thickest of 

 foliage on that side. Where the pits are sown in a row and the 

 young seedlings thinned to about a foot apart in two years' time a 

 hedge and windbreak will be produced that will withstand any 

 ordinary wind. 



Of all California orchard trees the apricot needs more attention 

 in the way of pruning than any other. 



It is a rampant grower, and in its zealous haste for size and 

 fruitage it over-reaches itself and becomes the pre}' of specific gravity 



