328 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



and the head somewhat opened up. The 

 sour cherries, on the other hand, are in- 

 clined to be drooping- and spreading- in habit, 

 and the tendency must be corrected as early 

 as possible. See Fig. 50. The head once 

 formed, little pruning of the cherry is re- 

 quired. In fact, the less the better, as a 

 g-ood deal of gum exudes from the pruned 

 parts, and the wounds heal less easily than 

 those of other trees. The sweet cherries 

 may be headed slig-htly hig-her than the 



WELL rORn£o 



Dukes or sours. Fig-. 51 illustrates a crotch 

 the evil of which will be remedied by re- 

 moving- the branch at A in Fig. 52. 



Cultivation and Manuring. — The gen- 

 eral system of tillage and manuring advo- 

 cated for other fruits will apply also in the 

 case of the cherry. People who have been 

 accustomed to grow the sour cherry in sod 

 along their fences have little conception 

 what this fruit will do when generously 

 treated. The orchard in Fig-, 49, compris- 

 ing now about one hundred and forty bear- 

 ing trees, commenced to fruit in the fourth 

 year, and has not failed to produce a crop 

 since. Since that time it has received one 

 heavy coating of manure, a good crop of 

 crimson clover plowed under, and two ap- 

 plications of unleached wood ashes at the 

 rate of eighty bushels to the acre. No 

 weeds have been allowed to grow. No 

 plowing was done in the past spring, the 

 disc harrow working the ground from the 

 trees and a fine-toothed harrow doing the 

 rest of the work, with the exception of a 



