390 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



are destroying the really useful birds. As well go into ecstasies over the blos- 

 soms of the Canada thistle because it is beautiful, and import it to your farms, 

 as to bring the sparrow and the cherry bird to your orchards. 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING. 



A word about harvesting and marketing sweet cherries may interest some. 

 They should never be pulled from the tree, for two reasons : pulling frequently 

 breaks off the spur containing the blossom buds for the next season, and it 

 frequently loosens the stem from the cherry, thus starting the juice, whicli 

 very soon causes the rotting of the cherry. An extra expense of one cent per 

 quart over the ordinary way of picking, will pay for cutting the stems near 

 the middle with a pair of scissors. When thus picked, and carefully packed in 

 quart boxes, they can be kept a long time or sent long distances. I am unable 

 to say how long they may be kept, but will say that we kept a box of Yellow 

 Spanish cherries, the past summer, ten days in an ordinary room, without any 

 indications of decay. 



When I speak of quart boxes I mean a dry-measure quart, not the diminu- 

 tive thing that dishonest and short-sighted men are every year scrimping and 

 calling "a quart box." People who buy fruit do not decide the question 

 whether they buy or not on the cost of a single package, but on the question 

 "what does it cost to supply my family ?" 



A pint box itself costs about as much as a quart, and pays nearly as much 

 freight, requiring a large part of the consumers' money to pay for packages, 

 thus making the fruit supply for his family more costly, and often ruling it 

 out to the injury of the market for the grower. 



Cherries shipped in quart boxes are not sufficiently massed to crush the pulp 

 or start the juice in ordinary handling, and can be sent long distances, and 

 "will not injure the market by risk of rotting on dealers' hands. 



In selecting varieties to plant, the safest rule is to plant those varieties that 

 are proved most successful in our own vicinity, remembering that, in all fruits, 

 valuable additions to the list of well tried or standard varieties are not of fre- 

 quent occurrence. While a given list may be of some value where there is no 

 local experience to guide, it is best for a person planting to post himself as to 

 the success of the nearest cultivated varieties, and to use great caution against 

 planting varieties not generally known. 



