62 THE KANSAS CHERRY. 



GROWING BIG CHERRIES. 



A writer in the St. James Gazette, London, tells how big cherries 

 are obtained in that country. He says : The next and most important 

 point of all now is, how can we improve the size and color of our cher- 

 ries y We have been told, until we are weary, that the cherry tree 

 does best in sod. We do not believe it, for such a suggestion goes 

 dead against our contention that all fruit-trees are more fruitful when 

 the surface soil above their roots is clean — unoccupied by anything 

 growing, whether it be grass or weeds. We admit that in the sum- 

 mer heat the cherry tree needs water, and a large quantity of it ; also, 

 that coolness above the roots is an advantage. We do not mind say- 

 ing that sod insures coolness to a certain extent, but grass robs the 

 soil of plant-food, and takes what the roots of the cherry trees want 

 and should have instead. 



To meet the demands of the cherry tree in summer, or just previous 

 to and in the fruiting season, we prefer to act thus, and find the result 

 more satisfactory by a long way : To insure coolness over the roots 

 use a mulch of stones. They need not be too small ; they will answer 

 the purpose much better that either stable manure or sod ever can. 

 They do not keep out the air ; they retain the moisture from the morn- 

 ing dews, and act most beneficially. Next feed with liquid manure 

 now and again, after the fruits begin to swell, and then see how they 

 develop. Well, those who have never grown cherries before under 

 this method will, upon testing it, be amazed at the results. One of 

 the finest parcels of big cherries ever marketed came from trees treated 

 thus under our instructions. When they were being put upon the 

 cart one day a passing grower .said to the owner of the fruit : "I say, 

 guv'nor, how do you grow big cherries like them ?" The owner gave 

 no reply. We give the secret away, if secret it be, satisfied that if the 

 system is adopted it will double or treble tlie weight of the crop of 

 each tree. 



CHERRIES IN DEMAND. 



There is a constantly growing demand for well-grown, well-colored 

 cherries of good size, and they bring better prices in the markets 

 everywhere than any other orchard fruit, year in and year out, with 

 the iDossible exception of apples, when the labor of gathering and 

 marketing is considered. A veteran cherry grower at a recent gath- 

 ering remarked that, in his opinion, formed from extended observa- 

 tion, there were fewer cherry trees on the farms of the country than 

 any other of our orchard trees of the sorts generally grown. He as- 



