STATE POMOI.OGICAL SOCIETY. 55 



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trees made rapid growth and bore fruit abundantly nearly every 

 year for about thirty-five years. There were so many trees in 

 the neighborhood that the birds caused no annoyance, making 

 little impression on the quantity of fruit. On one place in the 

 neighborhood the sour cherry has been growing for more than 

 eighty years on the same spot and the trees were loaded with 

 fruit the past season. All the aforementioned trees after they 

 were planted received no further care. As the late L. B. Peirce 

 said of his trees : "They came nearer working for nothing and 

 boarding themselves than any fruit I grew." Other neighbors 

 are growing the Montmorency cherry — the oldest trees in bear- 

 ing, planted thirty years ago. There are thousands of homes 

 in Maine, both on the farms and in villages, where there are, 

 around the buildings, spots of more than ordinary fertility suit- 

 able to the cherry, where, once planted, it would thrive without 

 further care. It is one of those things, now neglected, that 

 would help make farm life more attractive. These seems to be 

 an awakened interest in regard to its cultivation in other states. 

 Prof. F. H. Bailey says : "There seems to be a general inquiry 

 among farmers and fruit growers concerning the care of cherry 

 orchards, the most desirable varieties, the diseases, and the best 

 methods of handling and marketing the crops. As these matters 

 become better understood the cherry industry may be expected 

 to reach a prominent position among other horticultural indus- 

 tries." 



Wherever in other states it has been grown for market it has 

 proved a most profitable crop. In the present number of 

 Green's Fruit Grower (November, 1908) a writer says: "From 

 one hundred trees I sold the present season one hundred and 

 fifty bushels of cherries at three dollars per bushel." This 

 may be a large yield from less than an acre, but the cherry 

 responds readily to intensive culture. Profits of forty dollars or 

 thereabouts are reported from trees planted near the buildings 

 as shade trees. Wherever the sour varieties have been grown 

 for canning the demand has always exceeded the supply; and 

 the demand will become more urgent as its value for this pur- 

 pose becomes more generally known. 



It won't pay to grow but one tree of any variety. It will 

 only prove a vexation. ■ There will be only about what fruit the 



