APRICOT, the fruit of Prunus armeniaca. Like the plum, the apricot is a stone fruit, cultivated generally throughout temperate regions, and used chiefly in the form of preserves and in tarts. The tree has long been cultivated in Armenia (hence the name Armeniaca) ; it is a native of north China and other parts of temperate Asia. It flowers very early in the sea son, and is a hardy tree, but the fruit will scarcely ripen in Great Britain unless the tree is trained against a wall. A great num ber of varieties of the apricot, as of most cultivated fruits, are distinguished by cultivators. The kernels of several varieties are edible, and in Egypt those of the Musch-Musch variety form a considerable article of commerce. The French liqueur Eau de noyaux is prepared from hitter apricot kernels. Large quantities of fruit are imported from France into Great Britain.
The apricot is propagated by budding on the mussel or com mon plum stock. The tree succeeds in good well-drained loamy soil, rather light than heavy. It is usually grown as a wall-tree the east and west aspects being preferred to the south, which in duces mealiness in the fruit, though in Scotland the best aspects are necessary. The most usual and best mode of training is the fan method. The fruit is produced on shoots of the preceding year, and on small close spurs formed on the two-year-old wood. The ripening of the fruit of the apricot is accelerated by culture under glass, the trees being either planted out like peaches or grown in pots on the orchard-house system. They must be very gently stimulated by heat, since they naturally bloom when the temperature is comparatively low.
Apricot production in the United States centres in California, which grows between 90 and 95% of the total. The average an nual production in this State for the ten-year period 1927-36, in cluding some quantities not harvested because of market condi tions, was 221,600 tons; in 1937 it was 311,000 tons and in 1938 it was estimated at 176,00o tons. The farm value of the product in 1936 was $8,374,000. The bulk of California apricots are dried, but between a quarter and a third are used for canning. Approximately 53,000,000lb. of dried and canned apricots were exported in 36, an average year. Most of the dried fruit is exported to France and (prior to 1934) Germany. The United Kingdom is the largest user of the canned fruit ; in 1935-36 it imported 23,973,000 of the 26,7S4,000lb. exported by the U.S.A.