THE CHERRY. 253 



pears and apples, an upright stem with horizontal branches. 

 To produce this the same means are employed as have 

 been previously described. If the tree has no side 

 branches proper for the first arms, it must be cut back to 

 within six inches of the ground, and from the shoots pro- 

 duced below that, one is selected for -the leader, and one 

 on each side for the first horizontal branches ; the other 

 shoots are pinched off. At the next pruning the leader is 

 again shortened to produce another pair of side brandies 

 eight or ten inches from the first ; the leader is continued 

 in an upright direction, and the side branches are brought 

 half-way down in midsummer, and at the following spring 

 pruning they are placed in the horizontal position. The 

 leading shoot of rapid-growing sorts may be stopped about 

 the end of June, and this will produce side shoots from 

 which another pair of arms may be taken, and thus gain 

 a year in the formation of the tree, or covering the wall 

 or trellis. 



For weak-growing sorts, the fan form or some modifica- 

 tion of it would, perhaps, be more suitable than the hori- 

 zontal, as it offers less restraint to the circulation of the 

 sap in the branches. 



The Cherry as a Dwarf or Bush. The slow-growing 

 sorts, such as the dukes and morellos, when worked on the 

 mahaleb stock, make very pretty and very easily managed 

 prolific bushes, and by occasional root-pruning they may 

 be confined to as small a space as a dwarf apple-tree. To 

 produce this form the young tree is cut back to within 

 five or six buds of its base ; and from the shoots produced 

 below that, four or five evenly distributed around the tree 

 are selected for the permanent branches or framework of 

 the tree. The others are rubbed off. At the next pru- 

 ning the branches thus produced are shortened to produce 

 secondary branches ; and thus it is treated from year to 

 year until the tree is formed and full-grown. 



The branches must be kept far enough apart to admit 



