SOME EXPERIENCE WITH CHERRIES. 135 



Anderson of Ord. In the absence of Mr. Anderson his paper 

 will be read by the Secretary, 



SOME EXPERIENCE WITH CHERRIES. 



BY W. A. ANDERSON, ORD. 



I came to Nebraska in the spring of 1879 and located in VaUey 

 county. Conditions were not as favorable at that date for the 

 propagation of fruit and yet here and there settlers had a few 

 trees of various varieties planted as an experiment. The can- 

 yons and banks of creeks had an abundance of wild plum, choke 

 cherry and wild grape vines were plentiful in many places. 

 My location was not far from the famous "sand hills" and in 

 July and August of that year the sand-cherries were abundant 

 and were eagerly sought for by the new settlers and were used 

 in place of the cultivated fruit that many were used to in their 

 previous homes in the east. To those not familiar with that fruit 

 a word might not be out of place here. The sand cherry is a 

 low, scrubby bush, seldom being more than three feet in height 

 and more often from a foot to eighteen inches. It grows in 

 great abundance everywhere in the sand hiUs and the more 

 sandy the soil the better the fruit. I have seen cherries grow- 

 ing on the tops of the highest sand hills where the loose sand 

 had blown over and buried the fruit under the drifting sand 

 and this fruit was bleached out white when uncovered and was of 

 even better quality than that above the sand. The fruit grows 

 along the limbs of the bush from the ground up to almost the 

 ends of the limbs. We gathered an abundance of the fruit that 

 season and I decided that if the fruit did so well in a wild state, 

 if it were cultivated it certainly ought to improve. The next 

 spring I removed from the sand hills and set out quite a number 

 of the bushes in my garden where I had designed later to plant 

 an orchard. I gave them thorough cultivation and they made 

 a rank growth but was much disappointed the next season to 

 get no fruit. The second year after planting they bloomed 

 freely and quite a lot of fruit set on the bushes but when ripe 

 it was bitter and unpalatable. This was the result whenever 



