CHAPTER XIX 



THE CHERRY 



Although the amount of cherries grown in this State is small as 

 compared with the aggregate weights of some other fruits, the 

 cherry, from the growth of the tree and the size and quality of the 

 product, is entitled to rank as one of the grand fruits of California. 

 The size of the California-grown cherry is a matter of pride with 

 the residents, and a marvel to visitors. It is related that, many 

 years ago, one of the most distinguished Eastern pomologists, who 

 was taken to an Alameda County cherry orchard during picking 

 time, could not recognize the varieties, though he had himself prop- 

 agated and shipped to California the very trees which were bearing 

 the fruit, the size of which so far surpassed all his mental standards. 

 And quality is commensurate with size. Whatever disagreement 

 there may be concerning the flavors of our other fruits as compared 

 with Eastern, the richness and excellence of the California cherry 

 has never been impeached. Recently the shipment of cherries to 

 Eastern markets and the extension of the canning interest, have 

 considerably enlarged the opportunity for profitable growth of the 

 fruit. 



Famous Old Tnees. The longevity and productiveness of the 

 cherry tree in this State is naturally of interest. Cherries that were 

 planted in some of the earliest settled parts of the State are still in 

 full vigor. One of the famous trees is a Black Tartarian, which was 

 brought from France by Dr. L. E. Miller, and planted by him in 1854, 

 on land afterwards owned by Robert Hector in Placer County, just 

 below Rattlesnake Bar, on the American River, about eight hundred 

 feet above sea-level. It is described as above seventy feet in height, 

 the branches covering a space between seventy and seventy-five 

 feet in diameter. The trunk branches about six feet above the 

 ground, and at that point has a girth of over ten feet. A close record 

 of its crop, kept for a number of years when the tree was over thirty 

 years of age, showed that it yielded from a ton to a ton and a half 

 a year. Such trees are too large to be profitable, for the fruit has 

 to be picked with the aid of extension ladders securely guyed, by 

 men slung in swings from such ladders or the forks of the tree. At 

 last reports there were about fifty of these large trees. Other large 

 trees were to be seen near Woodside, San Mateo County, and near 

 Oroville and Chico in Butte County, some of which have borne a 

 ton of fruit in favorable seasons. 



LOCALITIES FOR THE CHERRY 



In California there are many districts in which the cherry does 

 not do well, and situations for the fruit must therefore be selected 

 with discrimination. The chief product is made in the coast valleys 



