THE DOWNER CHERRY. 



Downer. Kenrick's American Orclmrdist. 



Downer's Late, Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. 

 Downer's Late Red, Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc, vol. 1. 

 Downer's Native Mazzard, JV. E. Farmer, vol. 8. 



Previous to 1830, all the good cherries m cultivation around Boston, 

 or we might say in the country, with two or three exceptions, were 

 foreign varieties, introduced from Europe, — the Black Tartarian, May 

 Duke, and Black Heart being the most prominent. The American 

 cherries were the Sparhawk's Honey and the Downer, the former at that 

 time confined to a few collections, and the latter, principally or entirely 

 to the garden of the originator. There may have been other native 

 seedhngs, and undoubtedly there were some of tolerable merit, but these 

 were the only two which attracted the attention of the earlier pomolo- 

 gists. Indeed, at that time it was hardly supposed that a native variety 

 could be equal to the imported sorts, and hence, if they existed, their 

 good qualities were overlooked. It was so with the Downer, which was then 

 designated as a mazzard, even by Mr. Downer, by whom it was raised. 



But the time had come when attention was directed to our own 

 native fruits. Through the exertions of General Dearborn, R. Manning, 

 and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which had then just organ- 

 ized, and especially through the labors of Mr. Downer, they began to 

 attract the notice of cultivators, and receive the credit to which their 

 great merits entitled them. They v/ere then first brought prominently 

 before the public at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, and were described and figured in the Neio England Farmer. 

 The Andrews, Dix, Lewis, and Gushing pears, though raised many years 

 previous, were then first disseminated among cultivators. It was thus 

 shown conclusively from the best of evidence, — the fruits themselves, — 

 that they were equally as meritorious as the best foreign productions. 



The cherry seems to have been more neglected than other fruits ; 

 for, while we could enumerate many native apples, pears, and plums, 

 there were only two or three cherries. Mr. Manning, whose discerning 

 eye early discovered the excellent qualities of our native fruits, and saw 

 in the Downer cherry the germ of what properly directed efforts would 

 achieve, began the growth of seedlings, and, in a few years, succeeded 

 in producing some very fine kinds. Dr. Kirtland, of Rockport, Ohio, 

 also became very early interested in the improvement of this fruit, and 

 his labors have undoubtedly added more to our stock of fine varieties 

 than those of all other cultivators combined. He has raised upwards of 



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