206 THE NURSERY LIST. 



Cherry (Prunus Avium, P. Cerasus, etc.). Rosacece. 



Cherry stocks are commonly grown from seeds. If the 

 ground is in readiness, and is in proper condition, the 

 seeds may be planted in fall, or even as soon as they are 

 ripe. If stored until spring, they must be stratified and 

 kept very cool to prevent germination, and they should 

 be sown at the earliest possible moment. They do not 

 need to be cracked by hand. Care must be taken that 

 cherry pits do not become hard and dry. This precau- 

 tion is more important with cherries than with peaches 

 and plums. At the close of the first season, the seed- 

 lings will be a foot or foot and a-half high, large enough 

 to transplant into nursery rows, after the manner of 

 apples, where they are budded the following season. In 

 warm climates the pits are sometimes cracked as soon as 

 they are gathered, and the "meats" planted immedi- 

 ately. They will then make stocks fit for grafting the 

 following winter, or for transplanting and budding the 

 following summer. Cherry seeds must never be allowed 

 to become so dry that the meat is hard and brittle. 



Cherries, in common with other stone fruits, grow read- 

 ily from root-cuttings, in the same manner as blackber- 

 ries. They do better if started over a gentle heat. 



The Mazzard cherry is the stock upon which cherries 

 are recommended to be worked. It is simply a hardy 

 and vigorous variety, with inferior fruit, of the common 

 sweet cherry (Prunus Avium}. Seeds of this are read- 

 ily procured in this country. As a matter of fact, how- 

 ever, nearly all sour cherries are worked upon the Maha- 

 leb in this country, as they take better upon it, and the 

 stocks are cheap. Sweet cherries are often budded upon 

 the Mahaleb, but it is a question if such practice is best. 

 The Mazzard is such a strong grower that the bud is 

 often "drowned out" by the flow of sap. In order to 

 avoid this exuberance, nurserymen often pinch in the 

 tips of the stocks a few days before they are to be 

 worked. The Mazzard is also liable to leaf-blight, and 

 to serious injury from the black aphis, so that the bark 

 often sets before the operator has had time to finish his 

 plantation. Mazzards usually have a shorter budding 

 season than Mahalebs, and are less uniform in behavior ; 

 and for these reasons, Mahalebs are widely used. This 

 is a distinct species, Prunus Mahaleb, from Southern 

 Europe. The seeds or stocks are imported. Mahaleb 

 stocks are recommended in the books for dwarfing the 

 cherry, but the dwarfing depends more upon pruning 



