ORCHARD FRUITS 63 



Montmorency, Windsor, Rockport, Napoleon, Yellow 

 Spanish, and English Morello. Except for remov- 

 ing interlocking or dead limbs I do not prune the 

 trees, which are, however, trained when small so 

 as to form well-shaped heads. AVhen properly 

 opened by judicious arrangement of the branches, 

 so as to admit light and air, there is rarely occasion 

 for spraying. 



" On recently planted trees I give no cultivation, 

 because it is the general opinion that bearing cherry 

 trees do best in sod. No commercial fertilizer is 

 given. In the order of ripening, Early Richmond, 

 a sour variety, is first, then comes Rockport, a 

 sweet cherry. Picking is begun usually about the 

 middle of June and the crop is shipped in 8 and 

 lo-pound baskets. The price usually ranges from 

 5 to 10 cents a pound. Sweet cherries are generally 

 set 25 to 30 feet apart, and sour 20 feet. If pos- 

 sible, a new orchard should be planted in the fall, 

 but if this cannot be done, it is better to buy trees 

 in the autumn and hold for spring planting, as it is 

 next to impossible to have trees dug and shipped 

 in the spring before the buds swell, and the vitality 

 of the cherry trees is always injured if growth is 

 commenced before the trees are dug." 



"As soon as ground is dry in the spring," says 

 C. K. Scoon of Ontario county. New York, " I use 

 a gang plow in the cherry orchard, going down 

 2 or 3 inches. Care should be taken not to go 

 deeper than this, as the cherry roots are near the 

 surface. The orchard is harrowed once a week, 

 or often enough to keep the weeds down and a fine 

 mulch on the surface, until the crop ripens. I then 

 sow a cover crop or let grass and weeds cover the 

 ground. For a fertilizer, I formerly used potash 

 and phosphoric acid, but I am convinced that my 



