588 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE USES 



of the two classes of cherries seem to be mainly distinct, though they shade 

 into each other: the sour for culinary, the sweet for dessert uses. Probably 

 no person familiar with the better sorts of sweet cherries would be willing to 

 accord them a second on the list of dessert fruits. We may say they are the 

 perfect thing in their season, because we know of nothing in its season that 

 we can place before them. Placing this high estimate upon them, it is reason- 

 able to infer that there are great drawbacks to their cultivation or people 

 would not be such strangers to them. I am not of those who believe that 

 sweet cherries can be raised at only a few points scattered over wide areas of 

 country; though the editor of the St. Joseph Herald made the astonishing dis- 

 covery that they could be raised only at Alton and St. Joseph. Perhaps he 

 could convince us that what we raise on Yellow Spanish cherry trees in lati- 

 tude 45" are nectarines ! 'Twould seem a logical conclusion, for they are full 

 of nectar! There are drawbacks to this cultivation, but they are not of suck 

 an insurmountable nature as need keep the fruit from the tables of those who 

 believe it a part of righteousness to live on the good things of earth. I 

 will mention some of the drawbacks, and point briefly to some of the ways of 

 surmounting them. The tree is very tenacious of its climatic conditions; ex- 

 treme cold is fatal to the tree, and extreme heat to the fruit ; it will not bear 

 much pruning or careless handling; like plums it is subject to attacks from 

 curculio, and also to destructio7i by birds. 



While some parts of the State have climatic conditions more favorable to 

 the production of this fruit than others, there is probably hardly a county in 

 the settled portion of the State that cannot furnish sites where the conditions 

 of climate will admit of their successful cultivation. The difference in tem- 

 perature between hills readily sloping in several directions, and that of hollows 

 pent up on the sides of their natural outlets by bodies of timber, is very great, and 

 in the trying times of severe winter is enough to make the difference between 

 freedom from injury and destruction by cold. These differences I have proved 

 by a great number ot thermometrical experiments, finding in one instance a 

 difference of 27"^. This is an extreme difference, but in other cases, measuring 

 by results, I have seen the lower part of a peach orchard destitute of atmos- 

 pheric drainage, killed clean to the ground, while the higher parts had not 

 even the fruit buds injured. 



ALTITUDE, 



without the proper configuration, does not afford security; for elevated hol- 

 lows may be very frosty, while, on the other hand, a swell of land less elevated 

 than such hollows, but with free slope to a lower plain, will be comparatively 

 free from frost. Hollows are worst of all places for tender fruits, and next to 

 them are level plains. Those portions of the State not enjoying the influence 

 of a near body of water can make up the deficiency by planting on such hills as 

 we have indicated. 



THE ROT. 



We said great heat was a drawback, but it is probable that it is so from the 

 fact that, in connection with moisture and other conditions of growth, it 

 results in a too rapid process of ripening, causing the whole crop to rot at such 

 times. By planting in elevated and airy situations where no accumulation of 

 heat can take place, and where the soil is not rich, and without manuring, the 

 attacks of rot will seldom occur. 



