The Family Kitchen Gardener (1856)/Apricot
THE APRICOT.
Prúnus armenìca.—Abricotier, Fr.—Aprikosenbaum, Ger.
The Apricot is one of the most beautiful of fruits, and has been cultivated for about eighteen hundred years. It is a na- tive of China and Japan, growing in great abundance on the dry mountains of those countries. Some travelers also mention of its being found in Egypt. The fruit is much esteemed for making marmalades, jellies, and preserves. In its plain state it is considered wholesome and strengthening. In Europe it attains to very great perfection, though with us it never appears to grow to that size we have so frequently seen it there. A Moorpark Apricot, twelve inches in circumference, is a very imposing fruit, compared with the nut-like productions usually seen in our markets. It ripens at a very desirable period of the season, between the period of the late Cherries and early Peaches. We introduce the following as the best sorts:
Breda.—A small fruit, about four inches in circumference, very abundant, round form, deep brown-orange color, with a few blush spots towards the sun. Flesh deep orange, separating from the stone; flavor good, kernel sweet, which is a distinguishing character in this variety.
Hemskirke.—Fruit medium size (two inches diameter), of a round form, color bright orange. Flesh dark orange; flavor very juicy and rich. Tree of vigorous growth and an abundant bearer.
Moorpark.—It is admitted that this variety is the best of the family, and is universally cultivated. I have seen a tree of this sort that covered a wall sixteen feet high and one hundred feet long. Its growth in this climate is not so free as the former, but it is a greater bearer, and always produces a crop. Size, the largest from two to four inches in diameter; color pale yellow; form round-oval; flesh bright orange; separating freely from the stone; flavor very rich. Growth strong; eyes close; foliage large. Delights in a deep, sandy loam. Ripe about the middle of July. The whole of this class of fruits ripen in this month, with us; but if picked before being fully ripe and put into an ice-house they will be in eating two weeks longer.
Peach Apricot or Abricot peche, of the French.—There is very little difference between this variety and the former; indeed it is so trifling that very few could detect it. It possesses the same characters and ripens at the same time, but the wood has not the eyes so closely set on it, nor is the foliage so heart-shaped. One grand essential to the production of fine Apricots is to thin out the fruit well, not allowing it to remain within two or three inches of each other. There are about ten other varieties of the Apricot, but all inferior, so far as has been tested by us, to those now described.
Culture.—This tree rarely succeeds well in this country unless protected by a wall or fence; not that it does not grow as a standard, like other fruit trees, but in that position it rarely matures a crop, except in city gardens, the early Spring frosts destroying the blossoms. It should be placed on an east, west, or north aspect, avoiding a south. It requires a good, rich, sandy, loamy soil. The Curculio appears to be particularly fond of the fruit.
Pruning may be entirely dispensed with after the tree is formed, merely keeping the branches within bounds, and training the shoots in any required direction. As a standard, in city gardens, it is both useful and ornamental, being the first tree in bloom of the season, having a large, shining, green foliage, and generally producing a good crop.
Propagation.—It is too frequently budded on the Peach stock by nurserymen. On such it is short-lived, not constitutionally so, but the stock on which it depends for life fails in a few years, unless the Borer be prevented from attacking it. The best, and indeed the only stock that should be used, is the, Plum, on which it should be budded in July or August, and on it will grow half a century. Very good fruit can be raised by planting the stones, in the same manner as the Peach.