THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 6l 



the common double flowering cherry which never forms a large tree, and 

 has small pointed leaves. 



"The three last were imported from Bordeaux in 1798. 



"Small Morello Cherry, called also Salem Cherry, because it came 

 originally from Salem County, N. J., is cultivated by Mr. Cooper of that 

 state, who values it highly. The fruit has a lively acid taste. The tree 

 produces abundantly, and is the least subject to worms of any cherry 

 trees. 



"Mr. C. says that the Bleeding Heart suits a sandy soil, but that the 

 May-duke will not flourish in it." 



CHERRIES IN THE SOUTH 



It wovild be interesting but hardly of sufficient profit to trace further 

 the history of cultivated cherries in the states of the Atlantic seaboard. 

 References to the cherry abound in the colonial records of Pennsylvania, 

 New Jersey and Delaware but they bring out no facts differing materially 

 from those abstracted from the records of the northern colonies. The 

 Quakers and the Swedes in the states watered by the Delaware and the 

 English in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, all early grew cherries 

 as one of the easiest fruits to propagate and cultivate. 



Space can be spared for but two brief quotations to show the con- 

 dition of cherry culture in the South in Colonial days. The first is from 

 Bruce's Economic History of Virginia.' 



" In the closing years of the seventeenth century, there were few 

 plantations in Virginia which did not possess orchards of apple and peach 

 trees, pear, plum, apricot and quince.^ The number of trees was often 

 very large. The orchard of Robert Hide of York'' contained three hundred 

 peach and three hundred apple trees. There were twenty-five hundred 

 apple trees in the orchard of Colonel Fitzhugh.^ Each species of fruit 

 was represented by many varieties; thus, of the apple, there were mains, 

 pippins, russentens, costards, marigolds, kings, magitens and bachelors; of 

 the pear, bergamy and warden. The quince was greater in size, but less 

 acidulated than the English quince; on the other hand, the apricot and 

 plum were inferior in quality to the English, not ripening in the same 

 perfection.^ Cherries grew in notable abundance. So great was the 

 productive capacity of the peach that some of the landowners planted 



' Bruce Economic History of Virginia 1:468. 1895. 



* Glover Philo. Trans. Royal Soc. 1676-1678, vols. XI-XII, p. 628. 



* Records of York County vol. 1694-1697, p. 71, Va. State Library. 



* Letters of William Fitzkugh April 22, 1686. 



5 Glover Philo. Trans. Royal Soc. 1676-1678, vols. XI-XII, p. 628. 



