The Canadian Horticulturist 



273 



THE CHERRY SEASON AT MAPLEHURST. 



T is not often we have such fine cherries as we have just harvested. 

 Usually the cherry rot, Monilia fructigena, is very prevalent in 

 Ontario cherry orchards, and destroys a large part of the crop. 

 Some of our best varieties for market are very subject to this 

 disease, and almost the whole crop is destroyed by it in wet 

 seasons ; but this year, owing no doubt to the dry weather, our 

 cherry crop at Maplehurst was an excellent one. There was 

 scarcely a trace of rot, and, though badly thinned by the frosts, 

 yet every cherry that escaped grew to perfection. 



If, by the use of Bordeaux mixture, we could Succeed in producing fruit as 

 clean as that of this present season, there is no reason we should not succeed 

 in cherry growing and shipping quite as well as our California cousins ; besides 

 having much nearer markets. In our cities we see California cherries in per- 

 fect condition, evidently the result of the dry climate of that country. 



The first really good cherry of the season with us is the Governor Wood. 

 True, we have Early Purple preceding it about a week or so ; but it is not a 

 meaty cherry, and is nearly always eaten by birds, before it can be harvested. 

 The Governor Wood, on the other hand, is not so subject to the ravages of the 

 birds, is a delicious white-heart cherry of the best quality. This year it began 

 ripening about the i6th of June and continued until about the 26th. 



It is a productive variety, also ; one tree, this season, yielded seventy-two 

 quarts, and that might be looked upon as about half 

 a full crop, for about half was destroyed by the frost. 

 The tree of course is a full grown one, being about 

 ars planted. The variety originated in Ohio 

 There are several other varieties of white cherries 

 ripening about with the Governor Wood, which we 

 will speak of more fully some other time, e.g., the 

 Rockport, American Amber, Coe^s Transparent, and 

 Elton. The latter is a particularly fine flavored white- 

 heart cherry, of great value for canning, except for 

 its soft flesh, and its tendency to rot in wet seasons. 



The Black Tartarian is the most prominent of 

 our black-heart cherries, and although of Russian 

 and West Asian origin, introduced into England 

 about one hundred years ago, succeeds admirably 

 in the Niagara peninsula. The fruit is of tender 

 flesh, dark colored and juicy, of large size, rich 

 flavored and delicious. Birds as well as men, have Fig 805. 



a special preference for this cherry, and its tender Goveb.nor Wood. 



