358 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE COMPASS CHERRY. 



O. W. MOORE, SPRING VALLEY. 

 (Read before the So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



I find that the Compass Cherry is comparatively a new fruit and 

 is but Httle known in the southern part of the state. It is a hybrid 

 of the sand cherry and the Miner phmi. Its habit of growth is of the 

 medium between the upright and spreading form, and it is perfectly 

 hardy in every respect. Those that I have have had no root protec- 

 tion whatever and have withstood the winters of 1897-8 and 1898-9 

 without injury. They bore fruit the past season, being the second 

 year after planting, and the quantity of fruit was surprising for 

 trees of their age. For home use and canning purposes they fill a 

 long felt want in the cherry line. It is true that they are not the real 

 cherry, but, in my estimation, they are the next best fruit pertaining 

 to the cherry yet found. In my opinion they are not a fruit that will 

 bear shipping, as their skin is very thin and easily broken, and the 

 fruit perishable. The tree has a habit of making wood very rapidly 

 after the fruit is gathered and in time also for it to get well ripened 

 before cold weather. It is the only fruit with me thus far that some 

 bug or insect is not lying in want to get in its work on as soon as 

 opportunity offers. It is not troubled by the curculio or the birds 

 or anything else unless it might be that ever prevailing danger, the 

 boys. As to its drouth resisting qualifications, there is no doubt as to 

 their effectiveness. During the severe drouth of about three months 

 in the fore part of the past summer my Compass Cherry trees stood 

 the ordeal in a remarkable manner. Their staunch, sprightly vigor 

 in leaf, wood and fruit told a tale of drouth resisting power that 

 must be seen to be appreciated. 



The Orchard Map. — Labels fade out, and if attached by string 

 are often lost, while wire fastenings work into the wood. A con- 

 venient plan is to make out a rough map of the orchard with good 

 paper and ink, showing location of all varieties, with age, date of 

 planting, name of nursery and other useful notes. If such a map is 

 kept with the same care as other valuable papers, it will prove a good 

 help. 



Purchase trees from a home nursery, as you are most likely to 

 secure varieties that will succeed in your locality, and for the further 

 reason that if anything is not satisfactory the matter can be more 

 readily adjusted than where the nursery is several hundred miles 

 away. 



"I am using bushel crates to store apples for winter keeping. 

 They are made with solid ends and bottoms and slatted sides. For 

 ends I use ^ in. boards, and for bottoms j-i in. stuff made at a basket 

 factory near by. The slats are 2 in. wide. The crates are 13 in. 

 wide, 12 in. deep and 18 in. long and will hold a plump bushel of 

 apples when level full. This allows of one crate being set on top of 

 another when filled with fruit without bruising the contents." — S. 

 W. B. 



