THE KANSAS CHERRY. 47 



ground, ten feet apart, with a few short limbs. When setting I fill the hole 

 with surface soil, put the tree in the hole, put three or four inches of soil in, 

 then half a bucket of water. After a dozen or so are thus set I go back and 

 fill the hole up, making the soil firm with the foot. I never plow much with 

 a stirring plow, but use the two-horse cultivator, and cultivate whenever it is 

 necessary to keep the weeds down : that is generally three or four times. Never 

 let live stock among my trees; do not trim cherry trees much. One of my neigh- 

 bors who lives on the creek has the largest Early Richmond tree I ever saw. He 

 told me he picked three bushels of cherries off that tree when cherries were sell- 

 ing at three quarts for twenty-five cents, and that tree produced about eight 

 dollars' worth of fruit: and yet soQie say it does not pay to set out trees in this 

 part of the country. Well, it do n't the way ninety per cent, set them out. In 

 the first place, we people out here are bought and sold and hoodooed with tree 

 peddlers. They generally set out their trees in the fall because the peddler says 

 to. If there happens to be life in any of them the rabbits gnaw them. If some 

 leaf out in the spring, they look the patch over, and say "it don't pay." The 

 weeds grow up six or seven feet high, and they are disgusted with fruit-trees, 

 and swear they will never buy another one. An Ohio nursery delivered S3000 

 worth at Hoisington a year ago last fall. I do n't think one tree is alive. I 

 would not have taken the lot as a gift. 



Geo. T. Elliott, Great Bend, Barton county. — I have forty cherry trees in 

 bearing; been planted twelve years; the varieties are Early Richmond, Mont- 

 morency, and English Morello. Sweet cherries do not do well here. The English 

 Morello and Montmorency are the best bearers. My soil is sandy, sloping to the 

 east. Plant sixteen feet apart; market in baskets holding from twelve to sixteen 

 quarts, in Great Bend, receiving ten to fifteen cents per quart for them. If 

 planting over, I would put out the three varieties I am now growing; cherries 

 do not do very well here ; I think the varieties named are best adapted to cen- 

 tral Kansas; they bear every year; would not plant extensively. My trees are 

 troubled with no insects, but gophers bother some, which I trap. I do not 

 irrigate my cherries. It is no trouble to raise cherry trees here in Barton or 

 Stafford county. 



J. R. Duukiii, Sharon, Barber county. — This seems to be the home of the 

 cherry ; trees grow vigorous, and are as a rule hardy, and bear abundantly unless 

 caught by late frosts. Varieties mostly grown here are Dyehouse, Early Rich- 

 mond, May Duke, English Morello, Montmorency, Governor Wood, and the old 

 common cherry, known to every boy large enough to climb a cherry tree. There 

 should be more cherries planted. They require little attention, can be set in any 

 old place, and make their own living and produce a crop. The cherry is a good 

 seller here and finds a ready home market. 



A. S. Huff, Enon, Barber county. — The cherry is one of the most useful 

 crops in this county, and one that commands a good price and ready sale; a 

 fruit that nearly everybody appreciates for canning ; and, like the plum, an every- 

 year crop with me. I would recommend the planting of more cherry trees. There 

 are but few trees in this part of the state, in fact, not enough to supply the home 

 demand, and we cannot get too many. What few trees there are seem a wonder- 

 ful success in this i)art of Kansas. 



