10 THE KANSAS CHERRY. 



ever, is adapted to the states between the thirty-ninth and forty- 

 forth degrees of latitude and the sixty-eighth and eighty-sixth degrees 

 of longitude [this area is not in Kansas], and to contiguous areas 

 having similar climatic conditions. Spontaneous forms of it attain 

 great size on the Chesapeake peninsula. The sour cherry may be 

 grown with profit between the thirty-fifth and fourth-fifth degrees of 

 latitude and the sixty- eighth and one hundredth degrees of longitude 

 [five-sevenths of Kansas is within this area]. The Mazzard is the 

 best stock for both sweet and sour cherries in the East. The Mahaleb 

 is more widely used for the sour kinds, however, as it is easier to bud, 

 and it is free from leaf-blight in the nursery. The Mazzard forms a 

 better root system, stronger union, a longer-lived tree, and is sufii- 

 ciently hardy. For the plains states the hardier Mahaleb stocks 

 should be used. 



The cherry likes an elevated, naturally light, dry, loamy, retentive 

 soil. The sour kinds need more moisture, and will thrive in heavier 

 land, A soil not naturally dry may be corrected by underdraining, 

 and on light, dry knolls the moisture capacity may be increased by 

 green manures and surface tillage. The sweet cherries should be set 

 twenty-eight feet to thirty feet apart each way ; the sour kinds, from 

 sixteen to eighteen feet. The trees are generally set at two years from 

 the bud. The sweet kinds are started with three to five arms, with 

 no central leader, about three and one-half feet high, and the branches 

 are pruned to side buds for a few years to induce spreading, rather 

 than a spike-like form. The top of a sour cherry is made like that of 

 a peach tree. Plow the cherry orchard lightly in the early spring, 

 and cultivate it every ten days, or after every rain, till the middle of 

 June or the 1st of July. Seed at the last cultivation with a winter 

 cover crop. Stimulate the trees with leguminous cover crops when 

 needed ; but the sweet cherry is a gross feeder and a rapid grower, and 

 undue stimulation must be avoided. Keep the orchard in sod and 

 pasture it with sheep, along the southern and western limits of profit- 

 able sweet cherry culture, and withhold nitrogenous manures. 



Nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid are the three essential fer- 

 tilizers. Nitrogen may be supplied in leguminous crops ; potash as 

 muriate, at 150 pounds to 300 pounds; and phosphoric acid in dis- 

 solved rock, at 300 pounds to 500 pounds per acre. 



Cherries should be picked by the stem in small baskets a few days 

 before ripe. Sort out all stemless, small and imperfect fruits. Face 

 the perfect cherries in small, attractive boxes or baskets, and pack 

 these in small cases or crates. The choicer the fruit the more strik- 

 ingly it should be displayed. Guard against breaking the fruit spurs 

 in picking the sweet cherries. Fruit for canning is less laboriously 



