THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 85 



Cover-crops are in common vogue in cherry orchards m New York and, 

 since with this fruit they can be sown earHer in the season, are used to 

 better advantage than in other orchards to furnish a full supply of humus 

 and to provide nitrogen. Brown-rot, an annual scourge in most cherrj^ 

 orchards, takes less toll from trees cultivated and cover-cropped, these 

 operations covering the mummied fruits and keeping the spores they carry 

 from coming to light and life. 



Cherry growers as a rule are not now using fertihzers for their crops. 

 It would seem that this is not doing duty by the land; but it must be 

 remembered that the cherry grows vigorously and that over-feeding may 

 stimulate the growth too much, laying the orchard open not only to vmfruit- 

 f Illness but to winter injury of bud and tree. Among those who use 

 fertilizers there is little accord as to what fertilizing compounds are best 

 or as to what the results have been. There is common agreement, how- 

 ever, that Sour Cherries respond more generally to fertilizers than the 

 Sweet sorts. Until there are carefully carried out fertilizer experiments 

 with this fruit the vexatious problems of fertilization cannot be solved. 

 Nitrate of soda seems to be a great rejuvenator in orchards laid down to 

 grass. Whatever the cause, when leaves lack color and hang limp, this 

 fertilizer is a sovereign tonic. Heavy dressings of stable manure are much 

 used in grassed-over orchards, as they are, also, in such as have had none 

 or but scant crops. 



THE COMMERCIAL STATUS OF CHERRY-GROWING IN NEW YORK 



Cherry growing is a specialist's business in which, tmder the best 

 of conditions, there are more ups and downs than with other fruits. 

 Because of the great profits that have come to a few in the years just past 

 many growers have been drawn into the business in a small way or have 

 planted an acreage beyond their means to manage. The inevitable depres- 

 sion that follows over-planting is, at this writing, at hand and spells ruin 

 to some and disgust and discouragement in the industry to others. 

 Perhaps no fruit can better be left to men of reserve capital than the 

 cherry, and even with men of substance cherry-growing should largely 

 be incidental to the culture of other fruits — an industry to fit in to keep 

 land, labor and machinery employed. 



Cherry trees begin to bear in the climate of New York when set from 

 three to five years. The varieties of Primus cerastes first produce profit- 

 able crops but, at from six to eight years from setting, both Sweet and 



