May 17, 1883.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
897 
17th 
Tn 
Reading Show. 
18th 
F 
19 th 
S 
Crystal Palace Show. 
20th 
Sun 
Trinity Sunday. 
21st 
M 
[11 A. Jr. Summer Show (two days). 
22nd 
Tu 
Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Committees at 
23id 
W 
Society of Arts at 8 p.m. 
APEICOT BRANCHES DYING. 
SJ^V^hole limbs or branches in some varie¬ 
ties of Apricots suddenly perish during 
the season of growth. This has been 
attributed to various causes, but judging 
by the very many examples of dilapidated 
Apricot trees to be met with throughout 
the country, no satisfactory means have at 
present been adopted to prevent the disaster. 
No apology is needed for directing attention to 
this perplexiog subject, and it is introduced now 
in the hope that some light from one or other 
may be shed on the cultivation of this useful fruit that 
will keep it from waning still more than it has done in 
late years. Unless something be done, and promptly, 
it is not difficult to foresee that its culture in this country 
so far as profit is concerned will be given up altogether. 
In fact, so disastrous have been the effects of the 
last seven years’ weather on the trees and crop alike 
that some have supplanted the injured trees with 
Plums, and it has even been advised to abandon the 
cultivation of Apricots altogether by more than one 
experienced cultivator. 
Starting from the point that Apricots have been grown 
in this country equal or even superior to these from any 
other (for judging by recent importations “ they do 
not do these things better in France,” and that many 
cottage homes have derived as much money from the 
sale of the fruit as met the demand for rent) I shall 
endeavour to demonstrate that most of the evils attend¬ 
ing Apricot cultivation is a consequence of over-stimu¬ 
lation under adverse climatic conditions. The growth 
of the trees is remarkable for luxuriance, but the 
elaboration of the sap is defective, resulting in gum or 
canker. Both are, according to modern ideas, attri¬ 
buted to the effects of cold, and there is much to 
warrant this conclusion ; but the matter needs further 
elucidation, and in attempting it I must ask permission 
to go back to the time when fiued garden Avails having 
the best aspect were considered a necessity for the 
cultivation of the fruit under notice. This will take us 
to a period anterior to the introduction of cheap glass, 
of orchard houses, and of glazed copings for walls, 
these being the outcome of the disasters attending the 
attempts at growing Apricots under glass. 
I shall not endeavour to show that our climate of 
late years has been marked by less sun or a diminution 
of temperature such as to preclude the profitable cul¬ 
tivation of the Apricot ; but I must intrude upon 
modern notions by recording the fact that the advent 
of cheap glass, and its advocates for employment in the 
cultivation of exotic fruits, have taken such effect on 
the minds of men as to completely revolutionise modern 
opinion in respect of the best means of growing fruit 
trees of the more tender description. This I shall not 
decry, as nothing has contributed so much to the ad¬ 
vancement of gardening as an art and its diffusion 
among the masses as the availability of glass for the 
purpose of horticulture ; yet the panacea seen in the 
employment of glass for the evils attending the culti¬ 
vation of exotic fruits, or those that may not be classed 
as hardy in our climate, has unquestionably led to the 
neglect of trees cultivated on the old system, and the 
bestowal of more pains on those on the new. The 
present condition of Apricots demonstrates the de¬ 
generacy of the trees, and this must be placed to the 
account either of neglected culture or change of climate. 
If Apricots are groAvn as successfully under glass as 
they were not very remotely grown against walls their 
degeneracy is not proven, and climatic changes are 
surely not so sudden as to render the cultivation of an 
Apricot impracticable in the short space of a quarter of 
a century. If the earth keeps on cooling down, or the 
sun loses power at this ratio, we shall soon be told that 
Gooseberries must be grown under glass, or that it is 
better to give up the culture of everything our climate 
by skilful labour has produced in such high condition, 
throwing consumers on the supply of foreigners. Pine 
Apple culture has gone out of fashion, not because they 
could not be fruited profitably in this country, or that 
imported fruits Avere equal to them, but from the 
desire to have something different in their place. 
There is a reaction. Things that Avere once considered 
common, if not vulgar, are now being again groAvn 
with zest. It may be that the fashion of attempting 
to groAV Apricots under glass is Availing, and that 
there is some good to be had from their outdoor 
culture against Avails. What little I have seen 
attempted with this fruit under glass has not left a 
very favourable impression. In brief, Apricot culture 
under glass compares very unfavourably with that on 
walls, and in this old way they will continue to be 
grown despite adverse climatic condition. 
There have been always croakers —Ave have been 
going to the dogs in everything appertaining to garden¬ 
ing for nobody knows Iioav long, and yet horticulture 
is as healthy, if not healthier, than ever, and so are 
many Apricot trees, despite gnarled and cankerous 
examples to the contrary. 
I propose to ask attention to the causes of Apricot 
failures under the heads of Variety, Stock, Soil, and 
Climate, taking the last two together. 
Variety is something, yet not everything, in Apricots. 
Breda is generally considered the hardiest, and next 
to this Blenheim or Shipley, closely followed by Royal 
and Orange. These are vigorous growers and require 
a high Avail or building, for when the growth is 
restricted, and the roots are not proportionately 
limited to space, gumming is quite as prevalent in 
these as in any others ; and where the soil is rich and 
deep the trees grow so luxuriantly as not to ripen the 
wood, which is seriously damaged by severe weather, 
dying back at once or directly after the appearance of 
the foliage in spring. This is particularly the case 
after a wet autumn, when the wood has not been 
properly ripened. These varieties are, notwithstanding, 
the hardiest, but the fruit is only fit for preserving. 
Brussels I ought to have placed next to Breda, if not 
No 151 .—Vol. VI., Third Series. 
No. 1807 .—Vol. LXiX., Old Series. 
