206 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Cherries do not receive that attention 

 which they should. They certainly do 

 not receive the care bestowed upon 

 A pples, Peaches, or Plums. Like Top- 

 sy, they just grow. Orchardists are 

 very careful in the selection of varieties 

 of Apples, Peaches, etc. ; they prune 

 the trees and guard against enemies, 

 and stir and fertilize the ground. Yet 

 very few Cherry trees receive this atten- 

 tion. The selection of varieties is often 

 a matter of chance. Horticultural 

 societies give lists of best varieties of 

 nearly every other fruit quite fre- 

 quently, but lists of Cherries are remark- 

 able for their scarcity. A Cherry tree 

 is stuck indifferently into the ground, 

 and rarely pruned or manured. Yet 

 no tree is more grateful for attention, 

 or expresses its gratitude in a more sub- 

 stantial way. 



The earliest Cherries are the most 

 profitable. The first in the market 

 bring the highest price. The earliest 

 ri})ened of the early varieties are nearly 

 worth their weight in silver. The man, j 

 theT'efore, that has tlie first ripe Cher- 

 ries to sell will get the largest profits. 

 The bloom will open earliest on trees 

 standing on a southern slope. The 

 rays of the sun, falling most directly 

 upon ground sloping towards the south, 

 will warm it earlier in the spring than 

 ground upon which the rays fall obli- 

 quely ; and the sooner the sun warms 

 the ground the sooner the blossoms will 

 wake to life. And from blossom to 

 mature fruit the successive stages of 

 development will be most rapid on the 

 warmer soil : so that a southern slope 

 will secur •- the earliest Cherries. But 

 this entails a risk. The blossom-buds 

 may expand too soon. Always in 

 spring, warm and cold weather alter- 

 nate for a few week?. This period 

 proves most destructive to the hopes of 

 the fruit grower. The buds will lie 

 secure and unharmed in a casing of ice 

 during midwinter, but in the spring, 



after a few warm days have made them 

 swell, a slight frost may greatly injure 

 them. If the Cherry grower plants 

 his trees on a southern exposure he may 

 overdo matters and have no early Cher- 

 ries at all. My plan is to risk some 

 trees on southern slopes, and plant the 

 rest on high, dry ground, sloping to the 

 north. 



Cherries, both tree and fruit, have 

 few enemies. In this they clearly have 

 an advantage over other fruits. I 

 would not unnecessarily draw invidi- 

 ous distinctions, but a proper recogni- 

 tion of this fact will add materially to 

 the estimation in which Cherries are 

 held. The only enemy of the fruit that 

 has proved troublesome to me is the 

 red-headed wood-pecker. 



The Cherry is generally undervalued. 

 Of our commoner orchard fruits it ranks 

 among the highest in hardiness and 

 fruitful ness ; requires little care, and 

 less protection from enemies ; is really 

 a lucious fruit, beautiful to look ui)on, 

 and more })leasing to the palate than the 

 eye, and loses none of its good qualities 

 by being stewed, dried, preserved or 

 canned. — John M Stahl, m American 

 Garden. 



LIMA BEANS. 



This year I have tried a new plan 

 with Lima beans. I have always plant- 

 ed them in rows four feet apart and the 

 hills two feet apart in the row, setting 

 a stake or pole and then planting four 

 or five beans around them, manuring in 

 the hill. 



This year T run a deep furrow with 

 a plow, then put a liberal supply of ma- 

 nure and worked the soil back into the 

 furrow, mixing as thoroughly as j)OS- 

 si)»le with manure. I then planted my 

 beans about 4 inches apart in the row, 

 and the rows 3| feet apart. When 

 they were up well, I stuck them the 

 same as peas, only using longer and 



