CHAPTER XXI. 



THE CHERRY. 



PROPAGATION. The cultivated varieties of the Cherry con- 

 sist of two distinct classes of sorts ; the first, comprising the 

 Mazzards, Hearts, Bigarreatis, and Dukes, is characterized 

 usually by the tall, upright growth and pyramidal form of the 

 tree, by the large, vigorous, and straight young branches, and 

 by a sweet or bitter, but not a sour, taste. The second class, 

 or round-fruited, including the Morelloes, Kentish, and the 

 common pie cherry, has small, irregular, and thickly growing 

 branches, and a decidedly acid fruit. Observation will soon 

 enable any one to distinguish these two classes, even where 

 the trees are not more than a foot in height. It is the former 

 only that are commonly used as stocks for grafting and bud- 

 ding, on account of their straight and rapid growth. At- 

 tempts are not unfrequently made to propagate the common 

 cherry on the wild Black Cherry (Prunus Virginiana), or on 

 the Choke Cherry (P. serotina). Such attempts prove to be 

 failures, the sorts being too dissimilar in their natures to favor 

 union. These two species, it will be observed, have racemose 

 inflorescence, while in the cultivated cherry the flowers are 

 simply in fascicles or umbels. Some of the wild species (as 

 the Sand and Pin cherries, P. Besseyi and P. Pennsylvania) 

 having the latter kind of inflorescence, have been successfully 

 used as stocks, and their adoption might possibly prove useful 

 at the South and West, where the Heart cherries fail. In the 

 East, at least, the Mahaleb cherry (P. Mahaleb), is now exten- 

 sively used as stocks. The stocks are mostly imported. 



The stones, as soon as they are taken from the fruit, should 



be dried only enough to prevent mouldiness, and then mixed 



with an equal quantity of clean moist sand. The best way to 



keep them till spring is to bury them in shallow pits on a dry 



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