CORNELL UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 245 



we find yellow and black fruited sorts. The yellow fruited sorts, as a class 

 are earlier than the blacks, and of rather better flavor. They are f2jreenish. 

 yellow when fully ripe, and vary in size, the largest being about the size 

 of a medium Early Richmond cherry." The fruits vary greatly in flavor, 

 some being entirely worthless, while others were acceptable for some 

 culinary purposes. " While of little value when the quality of the fruit is 

 considered, it would seem that these dwarf cherries should give rise to a 

 race especially adapted to the northwest. They have withstood all the dry 

 weather of the past three years without injury, and they have been covered 

 with bloom for two seasons, though unprotected during the winter. Pro- 

 fessor Green, in Minnesota, has "fruit varying in color from quite light 

 red to almost black, and in form from round-oblate to oval. The largest 

 fruit we have is oval with three-fourths inch and five-eighths inch diameters 

 while one other is round and eleven-sixteenths of an inch in diameter; this 

 is nearly as large as the Early Richmond cherry. The quality varies 

 greatly, some being a mild not dis- 

 agreeable sub-acid, others insipid, 

 and still others very astriugent. 

 When cooked it makes a nice 

 sauce. The period of ripening 

 varies from July 24 to August 15. 

 A peculiarity of the plant is that 

 all the fruit on any plant is ripe at nearly 

 the same time and can all be gathered at 

 one picking. I consider this cherry not 

 only of prospective value for its fruit, but 

 of immediate value as a hardy shrub." I 

 have been familiar with the sand cherry 

 for many years, both wild and when trans- 

 ferred to the garden. It is very abundant 

 on the sand dunes of lake Michigan, where 

 it makes a shrub from five to ten feet high 

 and bears very profusely of variable fruits. 

 Some of these natural varieties are large, 

 sweet, and palatable and at once suggest an 

 *^ffort to ameliorate them. Professor Budd 

 and others suggest its use as a dwarf stock for cherries, while it is found 

 to grow well, for a time, at least, upon the peach. Finally, Charles E. 

 Pennock of Bellvue, Colorado, is introducing the Improved Dwarf Rocky 

 Mountain cherry, a description and history of which follow. I am 

 particularly gratified to report this fruit because I remember with great 

 distinctness that a " Rocky Mountain cherry " grew in my father's yard 

 from my earliest boyhood. Pits were brought by a friend from Pike's 

 Peak in an early day. As the western botanies do not mention any dwarf 

 cherry, I have always been puzzled over this friend of my earlier years. 

 Mr. Pennock describes his cherry as follows: 



"I have never seen a bush more than four feet hiyh. They should be planted about 

 eight feet apart, as they grow on the ground. The first I ever saw or heard of was in 

 1S78. I was making and floating railroad ties down the Cache la Poudr^ river, in the 

 mountains, about eight miles from my present farm. I thought at that time they were 

 the most valuable fruit I ever saw growing wild. I got a start of these cherries, and 

 have been improving them by planting seed (pits) of the best fruit. They vary some- 

 what in size, flavor, and season of ripening, and are capable of great improvement. I 

 have known only one bush that was not good m my experience with it. We hare 



Fig. H.—Pi-unus cuneata. Natural siae. 



