30 THE KANSAS CHERRY. 



at twenty-five cents per gallon would bring in round numbers, $247.50' 

 per acre. If planted on suitable ground, and given proper care, a 

 cherry orchard can be depended upon for annual crops for ten to fif- 

 teen years. 



CHAKACTER OF SOILS, LOCATION AND VARIETIES FOR. 

 A CHERRY ORCHARD. 



By J. J. KisEE, Stanberry, Mo. 



The character of the soil in northwest Missouri, for which alone 

 I can si^eak, is preeminently a fruit soil ; our subsoil — a deep stratum 

 of from twenty to forty feet of porous joint-clay — can only be equaled 

 if excelled by that formation known as the Missouri river bluff or 

 loess formation. This joint-clay is in reality a soil in which, if 

 brought to sunlight and properly aerated, will grow the finest plants. 

 Add too and over this a layer of from six inches to six feet of vegeta- 

 ble decomposition, mixed with drift soils and sand, for ages forming 

 a loam in which is every element of plant structure. The cherry tree 

 will not live with its feet in standing water, neither ought anything 

 but a willow be planted in such a place. My best growing and bear- 

 ing trees are on the north side of the top of a small elevation, hardly 

 to be called a hill, though trees are doing well on the south side of 

 the same. Trees set near an artificial pond so that the high-water 

 mark is on a level with the roots of trees, are dead or stunted ; while 

 plum trees in the same situation show very little if any damage. The 

 largest and finest specimens of cherry trees the writer ever saw were 

 planted along the upper sides of cuts in roadways and along terraces 

 on mountains and hillsides in Switzerland — trees over two feet in 

 diameter that looked as though they might be a century old. 



Varieties. — I approach this part of my subject with some degree 

 of hesitation. Differences of soil, climate, and even the markets, may 

 modify the choice of varieties. One of my earliest recollections is a 

 large cherry tree that stood near the homestead in the old "fatherland." 

 How well I remember watching the first burst of bloom in the spring,^ 

 the development of the fruit, even the counting of the specimens that 

 some day I might reach, the seemingly slow growth, and then, one 

 morning the red tinge on a few of them — how slowly they ripened. 

 Yes, I will confess to putting some of them into my mouth without 

 picking them from the tree — I believe I can taste them yet — and when 

 they did get ripe, great, big, lusciously sweet ; they were such as I never 

 expect to see again, for they will not grow in this climate. When I 

 tasted my first cherries this side the Atlantic I thought, oh ! how is it 

 possible to like such sour things ? 



