CHAPTER XIX 

 THE CHERRY 



Although the amount of cherries grown in this State is small 

 as compared with the aggregate weights of some other fruits, the 

 cherry, from the growth of the tree and the size and quality of 

 the product, is entitled to rank as one of the grand fruits of Cali- 

 fornia. The size of the California-grown cherry is a matter of 

 pride with the residents, and a marvel to visitors. It is related 

 that, many years ago, one of the most distinguished Eastern 

 pomologists, who was taken to an Alameda County cherry orchard 

 during picking-time, could not recognize the varieties, though 

 he had himself propagated and shipped to California the very 

 trees which were bearing the fruit, the size of which so far sur- 

 passed all his mental standards. And quality is commensurate 

 with size. Whatever disagreement there may be concerning the 

 flavors of our other fruits as compared with Eastern, the richness 

 and excellence of the California cherry have never been impeached. 

 Recently the shipment of cherries to eastern markets, the extension 

 of the canning interest, and the uprising of a demand for mara- 

 schino-preserving have considerably enlarged the opportunity for 

 profitable growth of the fruit. 



Famous Old Trees. The longevity and productiveness of the 

 cherry tree in this State is naturally of interest. Cherries were 

 planted in some of the earliest settled parts of the State are still 

 in full vigor. One of the famous trees is a Black Tartarian, which 

 was brought from France by Dr. L. E. Miller, and planted by 

 him in 1854, on land afterwards owned by Robert Hector in 

 Placer county, just below Rattlesnake Bar, on the American 

 River, about eight hundred feet above sea-level. It is described 

 as above seventy feet in height, the branches covering a space 

 between seventy feet and seventy-five feet in diameter. The trunk 

 branches about six feet above the ground, and at that point has 

 a girth of over ten feet. A close record of its crop, kept for a num- 

 ber of years when the tree was over thirty years of age, showed 

 that it yielded from a ton to a ton and a half a year. Such trees 

 are too large to be profitable, for the fruit has to be picked with 

 the aid of extension ladders securely guyed, by men slung in 

 swings from such ladders or the forks of the trees. At last reports 

 there were about fifty of these large trees. Other large trees were 

 to be seen near Woodside, San Mateo County, and near Oroville 

 and Chico in Butte County, some of which have borne a ton of 

 fruit in favorable seasons. 



256 



