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GROWING APRICOTS and PLUMS 
These two fruits require about the same 
cultivation as peaches except that they can 
not be cut back like peaches. They will grow 
on thinner soil than peaches and the apricots 
like the south side of a hill or building. When 
I was in Colorado a few years ago I found 
great apricot orchards planted south of moun- 
tains. The apricot does not make any tap 
root but grows right on top of the ground. 
For this reason, it is hard to cultivate them 
shallow enough. This caused the idea that 
they will grow better in a yard than any 
where else but they will make large trees 
out in the field if cultivated real shallow. 
The plums are hardier than apricots and can 
stand a little deeper cultivation. The trees 
should be set twenty feet apart for the plums 
and about twenty-five feet for the apricots. 
I get a great many letters from people stating 
that they have apricot trees fifteen years old 
that have never borne a cot. I once had about 
fifty trees that did this very thing. They were 
trees entirely unsuited for our Southern cli- 
mate. The buds on such trees are tender and 
often are killed in the winter time so the tree 
never even blooms. If the tree is not desir- 
able for shade such trees should be dug up 
for they never will bear. 
During the last few years we have found 
apricots that are reasonably sure bearers here 
in the South. As to plums it seems we have 
some well established varieties that will bear 
and unless a man has time to experiment he 
had best set these varieties. A few years ago 
in some way the Burbank plums all over the 
country got the canker and quit bearing but 
for the last ten years it has been a good 
bearer and is fine for market. The America | 
is about our next best and Bruce runs them 
a race every year. The Hanska for late is 
fine and for the latest the Supreme. Out in 
West Texas they still set a lot of Golden 
Beauty and August Red. Forty years ago 
we had a plum called Gold that would bear 
in great loads. What happened that this tree 
does not do well any more I can not tell, but 
I have not had a real crop of Gold now in 
five years. Years ago it was one of the finest 
in the orchard. The Sapa plum out-bears 
them all and if it was good for market it 
would be one of the greatest. There is not a 
better cooking fruit known than the Sapa 
plum but it does not look good enough to 
sell in competition with such kinds as Bruce. 
Where a market is established for Sapa it is 
simply fine. The Munson is too soft to haul 
to market and one much whooped now called 
Elephant Heart is simply not worth its room 
and this holds good with all the red leaved 
kinds though there are about a dozen of them 
sold. The old Wild-goose, a variety we had — 
when we were boys, is still good to have in 
thickets. The Endicott and Black Beauty are 
good though the trees never have been set 
much in the South. — 
I have had Nona, Excelsior and McCartney 
plums in my orchard a long time and never 
did get much of a crop. This must be too far 
North for them. The market for plums is 
more limited than the market for peaches. 
They are mostly used for jelly and preserves 
and it does not take so many to supply the 
demand. But when it comes to apricots, I 
defy any one to produce a better tasting fruit 
than the apricots we can grow here in Texas. 
I doubt that the market will be supplied with 
them. One trouble with apricots they begin 
to get ripe before people are expecting fruit 
and right at first do not sell so well but there 
is a demand at the wind up. They usually 
bring three dollars per bushel in bushel bas- 
kets and in gallon baskets may bring as high 
as fifty cents per basket. The worst enemy 
to both fruits is the Curculio and to combat 
this pest requires careful spraying but cur- 
culio is only bad about one year in ten. 

FITZGERALD NURSERY - - STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS 
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