NOTES ON CHERRIES. 



By Marshall P. Wilder, President American Pomological Society. 



The jDresent season has been remarkably favorable for this fruit, more 

 so than any other since iS6o. Not only has the crop been large, but the 

 weather has been uncommonly favorable for its ripening" in perfection, 

 being fair and clear, and unusually free from shov^ers and from damp, 

 " muggy " v^eather, of which we are apt to have more or less in the 

 cherry season, and which is well known as the prolific cause of rot. 

 Hardly a cracked or rotten cherry has been seen, even among those 

 kinds most predisposed to rotting, like the Napoleon, and from the same 

 cause the season has been unusually prolonged. Although the robins 

 have been quite as numerous as usual, they have kindly spared a larger 

 part of the crop to the growers than in most years. Perhaps the cause 

 may be a disposition to change their diet from fruit to vegetables, for I 

 have noticed that they have taken many more of my peas than in former 

 years. There has been no gumming of the trees, from which it is 

 inferred that the dry weather of last year was favorable to the trees, 

 ripening the wood perfectly. 



The excellent crop of cherries this year will undoubtedly stimulate 

 the planting of cherry trees ; and to aid in the selection of the best vai-ie- 

 ties I have been induced to put together these few notes, which, if not 

 wholly new, will be quite new to many readers of the Journal. Indeed 



