78 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



offspring, the Dukes, may be made to grow in almost any arable soil, but 

 the Sweet Cherry is fastidious — to be pleased only by particular soils. 



Sour Cherry orchards in New York most excel on strong, even-tem- 

 pered, loamy soils, naturally or artificially well drained yet retentive of 

 moistiire. There is possibly a shade of difference in favor of clay loams 

 and some thriving plantations may be found on stiff clays having good 

 depth and good drainage. Wet, sticky clays underlaid with a cold, clammy 

 subsoil — a combination all too common in Central New York — fvirnish 

 conditions which defy the best of care and culture. 



Sweet Cherry orchards are found excelling on lighter, and less fertile 

 soils than those we have described for the grosser feeding Sours. Growers 

 of Sweet Cherries conceive a perfect soil for this fruit to be a naturally 

 dry, warm, deep, free-working, gravelly or sandy loam. If the soil is not 

 naturally dry, it must be made so by artificial drainage, for this fruit is 

 most impatient of too much moistvire or a root-run restricted by water. 

 In Sweet Cherry soils, as will be svirmised, it is difficvdt to supply humus 

 yet this must be done either by cover crops or by manvire to make the 

 soil sufficiently retentive of moisture. Sweet Cherries can be grown on 

 other soils than those imder discussion but, for a large, firm, finely finished 

 product for the markets, only the soils described are suitable. 



The conditions of soil and climate, as we have briefly defined them, that 

 favor cherry culture are to be found in several parts of New York. Briefly 

 we may name and describe the cherry regions of the State as follows: 



The undulating, maritime plains of Long Island, covered with a thick 

 deposit of sand, are very well adapted to cherries where the soil is rich 

 enough to come under the plow. The genial climate, with its rather heavy 

 rainfall, is precisely that in which the cherry thrives, the region falling 

 short in the poorness of the soil — a fault easily remedied, where there 

 is good bottom, by mantiring. Despite the fact that occasional trees and 

 plantations show that this fruit thrives on Long Island the cherry is not 

 much grown here, the industry needing some leader to show the way. 



The valley of the Hudson from where the river leaves the moiuitains 

 on the north to its entrance into the highlands of its lower stretch is 

 admirably adapted to cherry-growing, both climate and soil meeting the 

 requirements of this fruit. In parts of the valley the industry has been 

 developed, Columbia County taking first place among the counties of the 

 State, with its 78,526 trees in 1909. The product of this region goes 

 chiefly to the great city market near at hand. Unfortunately the standard 



