958 



Rural School Leaflet 



TWO FRUIT TREES 

 H. B. Knapp 



THE CHERRY 



THE cultivated cherry is not a native of this country; it came 

 from southeastern Europe, where many of our fruits 

 originated. There are many species of the cherry growing 

 wild in the United States. A few of these give promise of 

 being useful and valuable some day, but as yet they do 

 not compare with those from the Old World. 

 This fruit is steadily growing in importance. There are 

 already a large number of cherry orchards in western New 

 York and in other sections of the United States. The 

 fruit is used chiefly for canning, and is a very delicious fruit for this 

 purpose. 



Cherries may be divided into two groups — the sweet and the sour. 

 The trees differ greatly in appearance and in habits of growth. The sweet 

 cherries are large, vigorous, upright-growing trees with reddish brown 

 bark, which separates in rings. The flowers appear at the same time as 

 the leaves. The sour cherries are low-growing trees with spreading, bushy 

 heads, much resembling in size and shape the head of the peach tree. 

 The flowers appear before the leaves. It is the sour cherry that is 

 chiefly grown on a commercial scale, although the sweet cherry is 

 gaining in favor for this purpose. 



Both sweet and sour cherries are divided into groups, and these groups 

 in turn are made up of different varieties. There are four distinct groups 

 of sweet cherries: the Mazzards, which grow wild in eastern United States, 

 not desirable in themselves but furnishing good stocks for other groups; 

 the Hearts, large, soft, heart-shaped cherries, either light or dark in color, 

 represented by the Black Tartarian and Governor Wood; the Bigarreaus, 

 also heart-shaped, but very firm and meaty, the Napoleon Bigarreau being 

 a common variety; and finally, the Dukes, light-colored, not so sweet as 

 the other groups, and represented by the May Duke. These classes have 

 been mixed by crossing, until now it is very difficult in many cases to tell 

 in which group a variety belongs. 



The sour cherries are separated into the Amarelles and the Morellos. 

 The Amarelles are light red cherries with uncolorcd juice, the Early Rich- 

 mond and Montmorency being well-known varieties. The Morellos are 

 dark red, more acid than the Amarelles, and have a colored juice. The 

 English Morello, grown for so many years, belongs to this last-named 

 group. 



