t
seed has a rich kernel which, in many countries, for example, China, is
used as a substitute for the almond to which it is closely related.

It was in 1933 that my aunt, Margaret Weschcke, told me of an apricot
tree growing in a yard on the Mississippi River bluff in St. Paul and
said to be bearing fruit. I was quite skeptical until I saw the tree and
also saw fruit from it which had been preserved by the woman who owned
it. Convinced of the hardiness of the tree, I was anxious to obtain
scionwood but it was not until late that winter that I received
permission to do so. It happened that a truck had broken off a large
branch from the tree while delivering coal, and the owner very
reasonably decided that taking a few twigs from it would not hurt it any
more. I not only took the small branches that she was willing to
sacrifice from her tree but also as many as possible from the branch
which had been torn off, as its terminals were still in a fresh
condition.

I grafted these scions on hybrid plum trees where they took hold
readily, and in 1938, they began to bear prolifically. The apricots,
which I have named Harriet, in honor of my mother, are a fine-flavored
fruit, medium in size. Their cheeks are a mottled red with raised
surfaces. Their pits are well-formed and fairly edible. Although the
parent tree died the winter I took scions from it, my grafts have proved
quite hardy, having received no injury when temperatures as low as 47 deg.
below zero have occurred. Since the parent tree died because its roots
were severely frozen, it would seem that the top of the tree, in this
case, was more hardy than the root system. This does occur sometimes,
although it is unusual.

In developing the factor of hardiness further in this apricot variety, I
have taken advantage of something I had observed about other fruit
trees. When one combines parts of two trees by grafting, it is a simple
thing to select a hardy root stock from the available plants, just as I
selected hardy plum stock on which to graft my apricot scions. This is
not always possible in choosing scionwood, however, since scionwood is
usually selected for such reasons as the quality of its fruit. It may
happen that the top part of a tree is limited in its climatic scope
because of its inability to withstand precipitate or otherwise
unfavorable temperatures. Having observed that certain grafted varieties
of fruit trees, such as the Wealthy apple, for instance, have