Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., July 10, 189 



-J 



The Honordbh Commissioner of Agriculture, Albany : 



Sir. — The following acconut of cberry growing, written with i>articular 

 reference to western New York conditions, is submitted for publication under 

 Chapter 230 of the Laws of 1895. The older cherry plantations of the State 

 were seldom anything more than scattered settings along lanes and roadsides, 

 and about farm buildings. Most of these old trees h ave now passed their prime. 

 In very recent years a new interest in cherry growing has been awakened by the 

 demand from canning factories, and it has no doubt been stimulated, also, by 

 the abundant sale of California cherries throughout the east. Sweet cherries 

 are yet scarcely planted in western New York in orchard blocks, although there 

 is every reason to believe that there is profit in the fruit if planters are careful 

 to inform themselves concerning it. Sour cherries, however, are now planted to 

 an impoitant extent, particularly about Geneva, and the acreage is bound to in- 

 crease. The pack of canned sweet cherries is still larger than that of sour 

 cherries in western New York, in average years. The scattered plantings make 

 uncertain crops, and canners can not buy as confidently as they could if there 

 were more continuous plantations. Consequently the pack varies much from 

 year to year. A normal pack for the Fifth Judicial Department may be con- 

 sidered to 1)6 nearly 100 tons of sour cherries and 150 tons of sweet cherries. 



The literature of the whole subject of cherry growing is so meagre and so un- 

 satisfactory, that I have taken much pains to ascertain the best methods and 

 varieties for western New York. The chapter upon sweet cherries is contributed 

 chiefly by G. H. Powell, Fellow-elect in Horticulture in Cornell University, who^ 

 with his father, George T. Powell, has had much experience with sweet cherries, 

 and who, during last summer and this, has been employed as a special agent 

 under the Laws designed to extend horticultural knowledge in the Fifth Judicial 

 Department of the State. The other chapters are contributed by myself. 



A full account of the native dwarf cherries will be found in our Bulletin 70. 



L. H; BAILEY. 



All the pictures of cherries in this Bulletin are made from life (except fig. 

 79) and they show the fruits exactly natural size. To the untrained eye, how- 

 ever, pictures look smaller than the objects from which they are made. 



