84 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



presumably the best nourished buds — certainly those from which would 

 soonest develop the leaves so necessary to sustain the breath of life in 

 the young plant and to give it a start. In the experiment at this Station 

 it was found that, if the top of the young tree was reduced by thinning 

 the branches instead of cutting all back, a much larger proportion of the 

 trees would strike root and live through our parching summers. 



Cherry trees in the past have been headed three or four feet above 

 the ground but in new plantations they are now usually started lower — 

 at half of the above distances. Two forms of top are in vogue, the spire- 

 shape and the vase-shape. Sour Cherries are almost universally grown 

 with closed centers but some growers prefer the form of the vase for Sweet 

 varieties, though the majority hold to trees with central trunks and many 

 subsidiary branches. Little pruning is done in cherry orchards after the 

 first two or three years, by which time the sapling has been shaped. Sub- 

 sequent pruning consists in removing dead, injured or crowded branches 

 and an occasional superfluous one. Heading-in finds little favor with 

 experienced growers. These few statements indicate that the cherry, as 

 now grown, is pruned but little, and that that little must be done very care- 

 fully, the pruning knife in the hands of a careless man being, with this 

 fruit, " a sword in the hands of a child." 



The general tuning-up in the cultivation of fruits during the past 

 quarter-centiiry has had its influence on cherry culture. Commercial 

 orchards are no longer kept in sod and the clean, purposeful cultivation 

 that has taken the place of grass has doubled the output of cherries, tree 

 for tree, throughout the State, the difference in yield being especially 

 noticeable in seasons when drought lies heavy on the land. Cultivation, 

 as practiced by the best growers, consists of plowing the land in the spring 

 and then frequently stirring the soil until the first of August, at which 

 time a cover- crop is sown. If the soil is light, and therefore hungry and 

 thirsty, the plowing should be done early and the cultivator kept con- 

 stantly at work until cherry-picking. Cherry orchards often, without 

 apparent cause, have an indefinable air of malaise — look dingy and 

 unhappy — such require almost week-to-week cultivation to tide them over 

 their period of indisposition. 



Grain, as well as grass, is discountenanced in cherry orchards, but 

 cultivated truck and farm crops in young plantations, or, under some con- 

 ditions, small fruits, are looked upon as permissible and often pay for 

 the keep of the young trees until they come into profitable bearing. 



