200 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



healthy and bear early. But the chief fault of the cherry from the cherry- 

 grower's standpoint is to be found in the fruit. The flesh is soft and the 

 cherries will not stand handling in harvesting and shipping and are very 

 susceptible to brown-rot and crack badly in wet weather. Wood has 

 special merit in the home collection, however, because of its earliness, its 

 beautiful appearance and delicious flavor. It is one of the first of the 

 Sweet Cherries, is large and, as the color-plate shows, is a beautiful yellow- 

 ish-white tinted with shades of crimson, with conspicuous russet dots — a 

 beautiful fruit. The flesh separates readily from the skin, is tender, juicy, 

 with an abundance of colorless juice and a flavor that has given it the 

 reputation, wherever grown in America, of being one of the best in quality. 

 It would be hard to name another cherry better suited for small plantations 

 and it is to be hoped that it will long be kept in the gardens of connoisseurs 

 of good fruit. 



Wood is one of the best of Professor J. P. Kirtland's' seedlings. It 

 was raised by him in 1842 at Cleveland, Ohio, and named in honor of 

 Reuben Wood, at one time Governor of Ohio. In 1856, it was added to 

 the fruit list of the American Pomological Society where it still remains, 

 being changed in 1909 to Wood with Governor Wood as a synonym. Its 

 popularity is shown in the United States by the fact that practically every 

 nurseryman in this country lists this variety. 



' Jared P. Kirtland, M. D., though now less well known than some of his contemporaries, was one 

 of the great pomologists of his time and a man of notable achievements in other branches of natural history 

 as well. Professor Kirtland was born at Wallingford, Connecticut, November lo, 1793, and died at 

 East Rockport, near Cleveland, Ohio, December 11, 1877. For sixty years of a long life his avocation 

 was the production of new varieties of fruits and flowers and, though a half century has passed since he 

 ceased active work, the results of his labors are yet to be found in the gardens and orchards of the whole 

 country. In pomology he gave special attention to breeding grapes, raspberries, pears and cherries. 

 He achieved success, too, as a hybridizer of peonies and in the introduction of rare foreign magnolias. 

 Professor Kirtland is given credit as being the first horticulturist successfully to bud and graft magnolias, 

 an achievement which has made possible their cultivation under many conditions and to a degree of 

 excellence that otherwise could not be obtained. He was the founder of the Cleveland Society of Natural 

 History and was for many years its president. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, 

 the highest recognition for scientific work to be obtained in his time in this coimtry. He served as pro- 

 fessor in several medical schools and filled other places of honor and trust. Prom his boyhood we are 

 told that he was interested in natural history and was intimately acquainted with the plants and animals 

 of Ohio, having special knowledge of birds and fishes, the propagation of the latter being one of his hobbies. 

 In pomology we owe him most for the many new cherries he has given us, thirty varieties described in 

 The Cherries of New York having come from his breeding grounds. Among these are Wood, Pontiac, 

 Powhatan, Tecumseh, Osceola, Kirtland and Red Jacket, sorts scarcely surpassed for high quality and 

 grown commonly in America and to some extent wherever Sweet Cherries will thrive. His 84 years seem 

 to have been well ordered, given almost wholly for the good of the public, and his name should be cher- 

 ished by pomologists among those who have done most for fruits and fruit-growing on this continent. 



