CHAPTER IX 



PLUMS AND CHERRIES 



"Cherry ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry, 



Full and fair ones, come and buy! " 



— Herrick. 



Plums and cherries are closely associated in 

 more ways than one, and we can well consider 

 both fruits at the same time. To begin with, 

 they are closely related botanically, they 

 respond to similar methods of cultivation and 

 they both suffer from the same diseases. Both 

 of them were a little slow in achieving popular- 

 ity in this country, owing to the fact that neither 

 was ever largely used as a source of alcoholic 

 beverages. Our early development in the field 

 of peach- and apple-growing was entirely the 

 result of the use of those fruits for the produc- 

 tion of something to drink. It was long after 

 Colonial times that fruit-growing as a means of 

 increasing the food supply developed into an 

 important industry. Consequently plums and 

 cherries got a comparatively late start in the 

 race for popularity. Even at the present time 

 neither fruit is grown in sufficient quantity to 

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