182 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



to be immediately taken away. When there is frost, all that you 

 have to do is to keep the apples in a state of total darkness until 

 some days after a complete thaw has come. In America they are 

 frequently frozen as hard as stones : if they thaw in the light, 

 they rot ; but if they thaw in darkness, they not only do not rot, 

 but lose very little of their original flavour. This may be new to 

 the English reader ; but he may depend upon it that the state- 

 ment is correct. 



263. APRICOT. — With regard to the propagation, the plant- 

 ing, and the training, of the tree, the instructions have already 

 been given under the head of Training and Pruning. The pruning 

 differs from the peach in that the apricot generally bears upon 

 spurs, some of which are formed by nature, and others may be 

 formed in the manner directed in the case of the espalier apple. 

 The apricot does not require so much attention as the peach and 

 the nectarine in the providing of new wood : because those trees 

 bear only upon the last year's wood ; but, occasionally new shoots 

 ought to be laid in to supply the place of branches taken off by 

 the Mast, which very frequently takes off a whole branch, and 

 even a whole limb, without any apparent cause. The apricot- tree 

 is not subject to mildew^ and to the various blights to which the 

 peach and other fruit-trees are subject ; but it is subject to this 

 blast, of which I have never heard a reasonable cause assigned. 

 The proper situation for the apricot-tree is a wall facing the east 

 or the w^est. Facing the south is as good, perhaps, but that situ- 

 ation is wanted for the peaches, the nectarines, and the vines. The 

 apricot is a prodigious bearer, and of life equal to that of an oak. 

 It will bear, and bear prodigiously too, after the trunk is perfectly 

 hollow, and there is nothing left of it but the mere shell. It is 

 well known that the young fruit, when of the size of a half-grown 

 walnut, is used for the making of tarts, and for other purposes ; 

 and, though, in my opinion, inferior to green gooseberries, is more 

 highly esteemed, because it is more rare. W^hether part of the 

 fruit be gathered for this purpose or not, courage should not be 

 wanting to thin the fruit so as not to leave it at nearer than six 

 inches at the most from each other upon the tree. A tree of eight 

 feet high, and spreading seven feet from each side of the trunk, 

 will cover a space of a hundred and twelve square feet : the fruit, 

 at six inches apart, would be four apricots to a foot, that is to say, 

 four hundred and forty-eight apricots upon the tree, or prettv 



