6 THE KANSAS CHERRY. 



Dukes or Merellos are best for their purpose. The celebrated Ger- 

 man Kirschwasser is made by distilling the liquor of the common 

 black Mazzard or Gean ( in which the stones are ground or broken 

 and fermented with the pulp), and the delicious Ratafia cordial of 

 Grenoble is also made from this fruit. Maraschino, the most cele- 

 brated liquor of Italy, is distilled from a small Gean or Mazzard, with 

 which, in fermenting, honey and the leaves and kernels of the fruit 

 are mixed. 



The gum of the cherry is nearly identical with gum arable, and 

 there are some marvelous stories told of its nutritive properties. 

 The wood of the cherry is hard and durable, and is therefore valuable 

 for many purposes ; but the best wood is afforded by our wild or 

 Virginia cherry, which is a very good substitute for mahogany, tak- 

 ing a fine polish. 



The large-growing sorts of black cherry are the finest of all fruit- 

 trees for shade, and are therefore generally chosen by farmers who 

 are always desirous of combining the useful and the ornamental. 

 Indeed, the cherry, from its symmetrical form, its rapid growth, its 

 fine shade and beautiful blossoms, is exceedingly well suited for a 

 road-side tree in agricultural districts. We wish we could induce the 

 planting of avenues of this and other fine-growing fruit-trees in our 

 country neighborhoods, as is the beautiful custom in Germany, af- 

 fording ornament and a grateful shade to the traveler at the same mo- 

 ment. Mr. Loudon, in his "Arboretum," gives the following account 

 of the cherry avenues in Germany, which we gladly lay before our 

 readers : 



On the continent, and more especially in Germany and Switzerland, the cherry 

 is much used as a roadside tree; particularly in the northern part of Germany, 

 where the apple and the pear will not thrive. In some countries the road passes 

 for miles together through an avenue of cherry trees. In Moravia, the road 

 from Brunn to Olmutz passes through such an avenue, extending upwards of 

 sixty miles in length; and in the autumn of 1828 we traveled for several days 

 through almost one continuous avenue of cherry trees, from Strasburg by a 

 circuitous route to Munich. These avenues, in Germany, are planted by the de- 

 sire of the respective governments, not only for shading the traveler, but in order 

 that the poor pedestrian may obtain refreshment on his journey. All persons 

 are allowed to partake of the cherries, on condition of not injuring the trees, but 

 the main crop of the cherries, when ripe, is gathered by the respective proprie- 

 tors of the land on which it grows : and when these are anxious to preserve the 

 fruit of any particular tree, it is, as it were, tabooed: that is, a whisp of straw 

 is tied in a conspicuous part of one of the branches, as vines by the roadside in 

 France, when the grapes are ripe, are protected by sprinkling a plant here and 

 there with a mixture of lime and water, which marks the leaves with conspicu- 

 ous white blotches. Every one who has (raveled on the continent in the fruit 

 season must have observed the respect that is paid to these appropriating marks; 

 and there is something highly gratifying in this, and in the humane feeling dis- 



