PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 127 



according to wliat they are worked on. It used to be the practice of 

 nurseryujen to work the cherry- on the Black Mazzard stock. For several 

 years past I have used the Mahaleb. I w^rote to Mr. Barry several years 

 ago, if that stock was good for the (;herry, and if a tree budded upon that 

 stock would be a long-lived tree, if it was hardy, and if the union between 

 the stock and bud would be strong and permanent. He wrote me in the 

 affirmative. Since then I have used that stock exclusively, because I 

 bud some trees for my ow n use, and I am satisfied it is an improvement 

 on the old Black Mazzard stock. 



Mr. Morrill: Doesn't it dwarf the tree somewhat? 



A. A little, but it makes a better tree and a better-shaped tree. That 

 is my experience. Then there is another stock on which they can be 

 worked to some extent — the wild red cherry, a sort of sand-cherry. The 

 fruit grows about like a currant, same size and color, and is worthless. 

 I have tried that to some extent, and of course it is very hardy; nothing 

 will stand more than that will. 



Q. Do you mean the sand-cherry or j)in-cherry? 



A. It grows on sandy ground along the lake. 



Prof. Taf t : That we call the pin-cherry, not the sand-cherry. 



Mr. Cook: Perhaps that is the kind; it is very hardy, and some of our 

 cherries will grow nicely on that stock. In regard to the Mahaleb stock, 

 there is one thing I have been testing which may better the difficulty 

 somewhat. Work them on the stock three or four feet above the ground. 

 I had my doubts for several years, whether the union would be strong 

 between the stock and bud. It will. 



Mr. Morrill: Do you work by graft or bud? 



A. Budding, by all means. In speaking of the Mahaleb, we take a tree 

 six feet high, and bud from the ground — one-year-old trees for budding 

 will do, and then cut the top of your tree off, where you want your top 

 to form, and you will get it right there. 



There is one phase of the cherry question which I take up last, w^hich 

 is yet one of the most important, and that takes us to the bird question. 

 This year and last the cedar birds have come from the swamps in north- 

 ern Michigan — or that is as near as I can ascertain their origin. They 

 came in hundreds. Could any one here. Prof. Taft or any one else, give 

 us a little history of that bird? 



Prof. Taft: It generally stays here all winter, and often feeds on the 

 cedar. 



Mr. Cook: They seem to come from the north, and I have understood 

 that they came from the cedar swamps where they build their nests. 

 About the time the cherries are ripe they come by the hundred. Now, 

 you know if a hundred birds light in a cherry tree, it does not take 

 them long to destroy the cherries. The only remedy I could see was 

 powder and shot, and I blazed away and killed some six or seven hundred, 

 and with what my neighbors killed I suppose there w^ere a thousand. 

 Then suddenly they disappeared. It is a serious question with us, for 

 they destroy from a quarter to a third of the cherries — in spite of all we 

 can do. I am decidedly in favor of protecting the insect-eating birds — the 

 robins, thrushes and cat-birds — I allow robins to build in my cherry 

 trees — and consider all those birds a benefit to horticulture and agri- 



