SwEKT Cherries. 4:85 



use in going up and down large ladders is of no small account to the 

 fruit grower. 



Cultivation. — A young cherry orchard should be given clean 

 •cultivation. Small fruits, like currants, raspberries or gooseberries 

 or any others that require frequent cultivation, may be set between 

 the rows for eight or ten years, but the bushes should be removed in 

 the tree rows and opposite the trees at the end of the third year. No 

 crop that does not require cultivation should ever be raised in the 

 orchard. In general, the methods described in Bulletin 72 upon 

 " The Cultivation of Orchards" should be followed. 



At about five years old the trees begin to bear fruit of consequence, 

 and at 10 years they give paying crops. As the orchard comes into 

 T^earing, the management of the soil will differ according to its 

 nature, and the trees themselves should be the indicators of their 

 treatment. Though there have been no experiments in the treat- 

 ment of bearing cherry orchards, I believe that clean culture should 

 generally be stopped by June i5th, or July 1st, so as to check growth 

 and give the wood sufficient time to ripen. The advantages of this 

 treatment are also pointed out in the Bulletin mentioned above. 

 Whenever the growth becomes too luxuriant, it can be checked by 

 seeding a year with clover. 



A certain cherry orchard has stood in sod for fifteen years in an 

 ideal soil and situation. The trees are making little growth and are 

 filled with dead limbs, and while there was a heavy crop of cherries 

 this year, the size was small, quality poor and one-half were rotting 

 on the trees. In striking coiitrast was a neighboring orchard which 

 had been ploughed lightly in the early spring and had had a harrow 

 run over it once a week up to the middle of June, and although 

 there had been a severe drought, the trees had made a good growth 

 and were loaded with luscious fruit of large size. The latter 

 orchardist believes that he can produce as large cherries as the 

 Californians can, by high cultivation and the conservation of mois- 

 ture the early part of the season. As a means of holding moisture, 

 he is putting humus in the soil by cover crops and expects to check 

 too luxuriant growth by seeding the orchard whenever it becomes 

 necessary. AVhile dryness is a universal maxim for the cherry, it is 

 advantageous to conserve moisture during the development of the 

 fruit, and the example furnished by this orchard convinces me that 

 the fruit can be increased one-half in size bv thorouo^h lio;ht culti- 

 vation up to the middle of June. 



