370 



FRUIT CULTURE IN ILLINOIS. 



Red Heart variety, which I peeled for a 

 neighbor two years ago, up as high as I 

 could reach from the ground ; and above 

 that, left three unpeeled, thinking the shade 

 of the leaves would protect them. And so 

 indeed it has. But the circumference of 

 the whole trunk, for some seven or eight 

 feet above the ground, on the part peeled, 

 has increased in two years some four inch- 

 es, while the unpeeled part above has 

 scarcely increased an inch, — making a 

 bulge now on the part peeled of some three 

 inches greater circumference than the un- 

 peeled part, some six inches above. Now 

 this is the way all our cherry trees of the 

 better class will grow in fact here, how- 

 ever they ought to grow in theory ; and I 

 have never yet seen the first tree burst its 

 bark after it was relieved by removing the 

 corticle entirely; nor have I known any 

 other injury from it, though nearly or quite 

 every unpeeled tree in the county has burst 

 its bark before it was ten years old. These 

 are the facts in the case so far, though I 

 admit the trial has not stood through a suf- 

 ficient number of years to warrant us in 

 saying that trees so peeled never will burst. 

 For some entirely new phase of the matter 

 may come up yet. We can only speak of 

 what we do know, and not of what we do 

 not know. And very likely a similar dis- 

 ease may proceed from entirely other cau- 

 ses in other places, and require quite other 

 remedies. I say this is possible. 



The remarks of my respected correspond- 

 ent, Mr. Elliot, I doubt not are true, and 

 fully applicable where he lives, as he has 

 a far greater practical knowledge of cherry 

 trees than I can pretend to. He had the 

 kindness to send me last spring half a 

 dozen of his choicest cherry trees, done up 

 in most perfect style, with which I intended 

 to have prosecuted a series of experiments. 

 But unfortunately, from the bursting of the 



canal and impassable roads, they did no* 

 arrive until they had all leaved out in the 

 bundle ; and with all my care I could save 

 but one of them. I noticed that these trees 

 were of a much shorter, hardier, and more 

 desirable growth than we can possibly get 

 here. For example, I took a little shoot 

 from a Heart cherry tree two years ago, 

 and searched around my premises for the 

 poorest, hardest place I could find to set it. 

 I finally concluded to set it directly under 

 the shade of the Catarobe vine, and the 

 adjacent buildings which I have already 

 described. I dug out a small hole with the 

 pick-axe and spade, and put it in — deter- 

 mined to have at least one cherry tree of 

 slow, healthy growth, if possible. I have 

 just been out and measured the amount of 

 limb that tree so situated has made. I 

 find it to be over ninety feet in all the 

 limbs, with a present circumference of five 

 inches at the ground. It is still, however, 

 hardy and doing well, and does not need 

 barking, and probably if not trimmed too 

 high never will; as indeed, perhaps, none 

 of them in that case would. But I have 

 not another place on my premises where I 

 could get as slow a growth again ; so that 

 a sufficiently slow growth in some varieties 

 with us seems to be impracticable. I am 

 however informed by a gentleman, from an 

 older county south of this, that their cherry 

 trees at first all died down as ours do, and 

 the farmers gave them up for lost. A crop 

 of shoots, however, came up all around from 

 the roots. In some cases they let these 

 grow up into thickets as thick as they could 

 stand, by sheer neglect, because they con- 

 sidered them worthless, and did not care 

 to take the trouble to exterminate them. 

 Now mark ; he says some of these thickets 

 have grown into large trees, bear fine fruit, 

 and stand the climate perfectly well. Taking 

 my hint from this fact, I have begun to set 



