PRUNING OF CHEKKIES. 75 



Orchard-houses. The Duke tribe are splendid, 

 and the New Royal is highly spoken of. I have 

 not seen it. Some late kinds are useful to keep, 

 if there is space for them in the House, and they 

 can be kept in muslin bags. The treatment of 

 the spurs is like plums, and very easy, because 

 the groups of round flower-buds soon form at the 

 base, and by pinching freely in can be kept fruit- 

 ful. It is a capital plan to break the shoots instead 

 of cutting them ; and as cherry shoots grow very 

 freely, they must not be overlooked: if so, 

 then it is best to break them partially through, 

 and let the broken ends shrivel up before cutting 

 them off. If grown as bushes in the House, spur 

 them in more closely, and shorten the branches 

 freely. A damp situation is quite unsuitable for 

 a good cherry tree, and they require calcareous 

 matter in the soil. As to Morello cherries, it is 

 a waste of time and labour to grow them on north 

 walls better leave them to the birds ; while if 

 placed in a fair position, this sort will rival many 

 of the others. 



I find cherries do remarkably well as Diagonal 

 Cordons, and they do not, as I feared, grow too 

 strongly to be treated in this way. 



I have a high south wall of these cherries inter- 

 mingled with good plums, and they look very 

 promising, all on the Diagonal plan. Some of 

 my best are the Duchess of Palluau, a new and 

 splendid variety, as a fan- shaped Cordon, and an 



