THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK lOI 



might be worth growing for breeding work because of its earhness and 

 great productiveness. At one time this variety was rather largely grown 

 in central and western New York and specimens of it must yet remain in 

 this region. 



From the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, when we first find 

 an account of this variety in Kraft's Pomona Austriaca, to the last of the 

 Nineteenth, writers have described Baumann May under many different 

 names. From all accounts it originated toward the latter part of the 

 Eighteenth Centiory, in Germany. From Germany it was introduced into 

 Alsace where F. J. Baumann, a nurseryman at BoUweiler, grew it in his 

 nursery under the name Bigarreau Baumann and disseminated it through- 

 out the French provinces. The cherry was received in America, with 

 several others, by Colonel M. P. Wilder of Boston, Massachusetts, from 

 Messrs. Baumann, about the year 1838. The American Pomological 

 Society hsted the variety, in 1862, in its fruit catalog as Bauman's May 

 but dropped it again in 1871. The following description is a compilation: 



Tree vigorous, somewhat spreading, regular in form, compact, very productive; 

 branches stocky, nearly horizontal but often curved downward; branchJets with short 

 intemodes, reddish-brown nearly covered with silver-gray scarf-skin; leaves medium to 

 large, dark green, ovate-oblong, coarsely and deeply serrate; petiole rather short, with 

 two large, reniform glands near the base of the leaf ; buds large, ovate ; flowers of medium 

 size, opening very early. 



Fruit matures very early; medium to rather small, ovate-cordate, angular, irregular 

 in outline; color dark red becoming nearly black, when fully ripe; stem one and three- 

 quarters inches long, rather thick; flesh purplish-red, with abundant juice, soft and tender, 

 sweet, weU flavored; of good quality; stone medium in size, rotmdish-ovate. 



BESSARABIAN 



Prunus cerasus 



I. la. Agr. Col. Bui. 53. 1885. 2. la. Sta. Bui. 2:38. 1888. 3. Ibid. 19:549. 1892. 4. Can. 

 Exp. Farm Bui. 17:6. 1892. 5. Mich. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 244. 1894. 6. U. S. D. A. Pom. Rpt. 39, 40. 

 1895. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 17. 1897. 8. Del. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:122, 123 fig. 8, 124. 1900. 9. Wash. 

 Sta. Bui. 92:12. 1910. 



By general consent Bessarabian has a place in home orchards in the 

 colder parts of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains. It is very 

 hardy and is said to thrive even under neglect — standing as much abuse 

 as a forest tree. As compared with standard commercial cherries of the 

 East the fruit is distinctly inferior in size and quality, being hardly fit to 

 eat out of hand, and is sour and astringent even when cooked. The trees, 

 though hardy and healthy, are dwarfish and not productive because of the 



