394 Bush-Fruits 



middle to the last of July, in Nebraska. The largest 

 fruits are about equal in size to the Early Richmond and 

 English Morello, as grown there. Although somewhat 

 astringent, it is rather pleasant to eat out of hand. It 

 should be left until fully ripe, for this astringency is then 

 less noticeable. Any eastern housewife who has known 

 the value of the better forms of the eastern choke-cherry, 

 though such are few, for that species is little known in 

 cultivation, will be able to appreciate the merits of the 

 sand-cherry as a fruit. Many western housewives know 

 it already. It makes excellent sauce and admirable jelly, 

 and is, no doubt, equally good for pies. 



Those familiar with the cultivated choke-cherry find 

 that when its fruits are fully ripe their astringency may 

 be almost wholly removed by rolling them in a sack or 

 shaking them in a closed dish. When so treated they 

 make an excellent dish, eaten raw with sugar and cream. 

 A similar treatment might improve the sand-cherry. 



Whatever value the sand-cherry may have as a fruit- 

 producing plant in the future pomology of the country, 

 its position as an ornamental shrub is assured. There is 

 no shrub more useful for ornamental planting on the 

 Plains than this. It is perfectly hardy, well adapted to 

 the region, and is a rapid and vigorous grower. 



As a low-growing shrub, or as a foreground for larger 

 groups, it can hardly be surpassed. In the plantings on 

 the campus of the University of Nebraska, it has been 

 used more extensively than anything else. 



The broad-leaved evergreens, such as rhododendrons, 

 mahonias and kalmias, do not succeed in the dry and 

 trying climate of the Plains, but this plant is a very satis- 



