THE CHERRY HOUSE. 53 



many failures in Cherry growing that I can do nothing 

 better than speak thus plainly. Cherry trees are very 

 peculiar things to fruit at the rate we might naturally 

 expect, according to the show of flowers they always 

 make. It is often quite amazing to see what an abun- 

 dance of healthy blossom falls from Cherry trees every 

 spring, and perhaps not one pound of Cherries can be 

 gathered from a tree that would be capable of bearing 

 fifty pounds of ripe fruit did the soil suit it. 



Two things seem to be requisite for the Cherry, viz. 

 a warm, dry and free air and a free soil ; if the former 

 is low and abounding with moisture, few or no Cherries 

 will be had ; if the former condition suits it and the 

 soil does not, the same thing will be the result. I have 

 tried this in my time and have found it to be correct. 

 This brings me to the conclusion that the Cherry likes 

 above all things, and can be best grown under, well 

 ventilated glass. The soil being suitable, and the 

 temperature warm and dry with an abundance of fresh 

 air admitted daily during the expansion of the flowers, 

 the pollen gets distributed and fertilises the flowers 

 more freely than it would do if exposed to the damp 

 of our cold nights, whereby it gets glued and cannot 

 disperse itself, so that the stigma loses its energy. The 

 fruit cannot in consequence stone ; hence a partial or 

 total failure arising from such unfavourable atmospheric 

 and subsoil conditions 



Back-wall cordon-trained trees and pot-culture seem 

 to be the proper things for the Cherry. From its peculiar 

 tendency to produce an abundance of flowers one can 

 easily see that it is particularly adapted for close grow- 

 ing either as pot trees or as cordons ; what are techni- 

 cally called ' short spurs ' are soon formed on it, which 



