Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/173

 deed 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.

.—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.

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.

.—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. 8