OUT IN THE ORCHARD 



trees — to begin with. You will find out, in due 

 time, how many more to plant. These, at least, are 

 necessary to make country life wholesome and com- 

 fortable. The list should be made out to extend 

 over the longest possible season. 



Of the cherries, the sour varieties are most im- 

 portant, and will drop easily into this succession: 

 Early Richmond, English Morello, Montmorency. 

 But the length of the season is very likely to be dic- 

 tated by your robins, orioles, and catbirds. A 

 really first-class bird is a good judge of good cher- 

 ries, and so ardent an admirer of the fruit that you 

 will have to discuss ownership. In the first place, 

 you must plant two or three times as many trees as 

 will supply your own table — in this way counting 

 in the birds. Even then there may not be enough. 

 Where your neighbors are not also growing cher- 

 ries, robins will come to you by the hundred, and 

 strip your trees. I shall have something more to 

 say about this in another chapter, and shall more 

 fully describe the remedy. What I wish to say 

 here is that cherry trees occupy very little ground, 

 that they make good windbreaks, and will grow 

 and bear heavy crops, when planted in very close 

 array along fence lines. Encourage your neigh- 



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