15 MANAGEMENT OF NURSERIES. 



from the lower end of the box assist in the separation of the 

 remaining pomace. In washing a " cheese" that contains a 

 bushel of seed, it is usual to wash it two or three times, by 

 using a scoop-shovel. Afterward, the last cleaning process is 

 given to it by placing the whole in a box, and then scratching 

 a four-tined fork through it a few times. A little experience 

 will enable any one to judge accurately of the proper quantity 

 of water to turn on, so as to make rapid work and not carry 

 the seed over the box. 



The pomace, fresh from the cheese, should be drawn and 

 placed on a board platform beside the box, and then plenty of 

 water thrown upon it, until it is thoroughly soaked. This 

 will render it easily beaten to pieces with a hoe. The pomace 

 should never remain in the cheese over twenty-four hours, as 

 it soon ferments and the seed is spoiled. 



The best stocks for raising standard cherries suited to the 

 eastern portions of the Middle States are procured from the 

 Black Mazzard, which is the original type of the heart varie- 

 ties. The fruit is to be collected when fully ripe by shaking 

 or beating off on sheets placed below the pulp washed off 

 and the stones mixed with alternating layers of sand, and 

 kept exposed to freezing and thawing until early the follow- 

 ing spring. They are then to be planted out in nursery beds 

 or thick rows. The spring following they may be trans- 

 planted to the permanent rows of the nursery. If the stones, 

 after being washed from the pulp, are to be carried to a dis- 

 tance, they should be dried in the shade for a few days to 

 prevent moulding. But the drying process should not be 

 continued, as a few weeks' exposure to air will lessen or de- 

 stroy their power of vegetating. Plum and peach stones may 

 be similarly treated; but peach-stones do not as soon become 

 injured by exposure to air as those of the smaller fruits. 

 Plum and cherry stones keep well through winter, after being 

 mixed with sand, by placing them in shallow pits only a few 

 inches deep, and covering them with flat stones. They start 

 very early in spring, and should be planted the moment the 

 frost is out of the ground. 



For dwarf cherries the seeds of the Mahaleb are used, and 

 are treated precisely as those of the Black Mazzard already 

 described. In the Western States the Mahaleb succeeds bet- 



