The Cultivated Native Plums and Chekries. 99 



cherry, I have always been puzzled o^er this Mend of my earlier 

 years.** Mr, Pennock describes his cherry as follows :§§ 



"I have never seen a bush more than four feet hij?h. They 

 should be planted about eight feet apart, as they jrrow on the 

 ground. The first I ever saw or heard of was in 1878. I w.as 

 making and floating railroad ties down the Cache la Poudre river, 

 in the mountains, about eight miles from my pieseni: farm. 1 

 thought at that time they were the most valuable fruit I ever 

 saw growing wild. I got a start of these cherri(^s, and have been 

 improving them by planting seed (pits) of the best fruit. They 

 vary somewhat in size, flavor and season of ripening, and are 

 capable of great improvement, I have known only one bush that 

 was not good in my experience with it. We have nearly all Idnds 

 of fruit, but we like the cherry to eat out of hand when fully ripe 

 better than any of its season. It ripens a month later than Morello — 

 in fact, I picked them off the bushes and exhibited at our county 

 fair, September twenty-third, twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth, 

 where they attracted a great deal of attention. I have learned 

 since I have had these cherries that other residents of the county 

 had them in their gardens more than twenty years ago, and have 

 them yet, so I do not claim to be the discoverer of them, but I 

 believe I am the first to improve them and make their value known 

 to the public. They are very scarce in their wild state here. 

 There are two kinds of them, one that grows outside the mountains 

 in the foot-hills, and is in every way inferior to the one that 

 grows near the bank of the Cache la Poudre river. There are 

 not 2,000 of these cherries of mine in existence. I could selJ 

 wagon loads of these cherries at ten cents per quart. I have 

 kept 200 of the young trees, which I intend to send to responsible 

 parties who desire them for testing. The young trees I have are 

 one year from seed. I have had them loaded down at 2 yearis 

 of age from seed. They have never failed to haw finit ererj 

 year; late frosts never affect them ; they are entirely hardy, having 

 endured forty degrees below zero without injury; ripens when 

 all others are gone; would grace any lawn wnen in blossom; are 

 easier pitted than other cherries." 



** Coulter's Manual of Rocky Mt. Botany contains no dwarf cherry. 

 §§ Am. Farm and Hort, Apr., 1892, 14. 



