298 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Budding and Raising Cherries. 

 1167. Sir, — Please give instructions for pro- 

 pagating and growing cherries. 



A SUIiSCKIKEK. 



The growing- of fruit trees is a compara- 

 tively simple matter, and many a farmer who 

 desires to plant a large orchard and can with 

 difficulty afford the expense of buying the 

 trees, might raise a few hundred for himself. 



Cherry trees are usually raised from the 

 seed. The pits may be sown soon after 

 being gathered, or if stored until spring 

 they need to be mixed with earth and kept 

 in a cool place. Every precaution must be 

 taken to prevent the pits becoming hard 

 and dry before they are planted, or they will 

 not germinate. The second summer after 

 sowing, the seedlings may be budded in the 

 same manner as peaches, except that it 

 must be done earlier, just when the bark 

 lifts easily. 



Usually the pits of the Common Black 

 Mazzard are used as seeds, especially for 

 raising stocks for the sweet varieties. For 

 the Kentish and Morello varieties, and 

 sometimes for the sweet, the Mahaleb is 

 often used, a common variety from Southern 

 Europe which is imported for sale. It is a 

 slower grower than the Mazzard and has 

 a tendency to dwarf the variety budded 

 upon it. 



The cherry may be also propagated by 

 grafting, but as a rule this method is not 

 employed by nurserymen for raising young 

 trees. 



Sweet cherry trees for orchard cultivation 

 should be planted twenty feet apart each 

 way, on dry sandy soil, well enriched and 

 cultivated. Some people say that they need 

 no cultivation and think the only place for 

 them is in neglected fence corners, but this 

 is an exploded notion. Three years of 

 cultivation of a cherry orchard at Maple- 

 hurst has brought the trees into great vigor, 

 size and productiveness, much sooner than 

 trees of the same age in sod. The pruning 

 knife needs to be applied with caution, for 



the cherry tree seems to resent much cut- 

 ting ; but heavy pruning may always be 

 avoided by the frequent and regular use of 

 the knife or grape pruning shears. Limbs 

 that cross should be removed, and long 

 limbs should be shortened to encourage 

 branching. 



It is not well to plant too heavily of one 

 variety unless plenty of pickers can be relied 

 upon, for such small sized fruit requires 

 many hands to gather it. One might cover 

 the season for over a month with such a list 

 as the following : 



Sweet — Early Purple, Knight's Early 

 Black, Governor Wood, Elton, Napoleon, 

 Spanish, Tartarian, Elkhorn and Windsor. 



Sour — Early Richmond, Montmorency. 



Morello — Wragg and English Morello, 

 Koslov Morello. 



Glllett's Lye. 



1168. Sir, — Please state in your next issue if 

 the above article is any good, and oblige 



An Amateur. 



This is simply an excellent brand of con- 

 densed lye, and a convenient form in which 

 to purchase and handle the same. It is 

 very strong and effective for destroying 

 aphis and other soft bodied insects by con- 

 tact with their bodies, which are burned up 

 thereby. Before the foliage appears the 

 trunk and limbs may be washed with a 

 strong solution, and the result will be to 

 cleanse the wood of both insect and fungi, 

 and make it vigorous and healthy, a result 

 similar to that obtained by the application of 

 whale oil soap. 



We hav^ been applying Gillett's lye to 

 our rose bushes in May and June for the 

 destruction of aphis and rose hopper. We 

 used a ten cent package to five gallons of 

 water, and the result was quite satisfactory, 

 although some of the leaves were slightly 

 burned. It is very convenient of application 

 with one of Mitchell's hand sprayers. 



