448 THE CHERRY. 



The gum of the Cherry is nearly identical with gum arabic, and there 

 are some marvellous stories told of its nutritive properties. The wood 

 of the cherry is hard and durable, and is therefore valuable for many 

 purposes ; but the best wood is afforded by our common wild or Virginia 

 cherry, which is a very good substitute for mahogany, taking a fine 

 polish. 



The larger growing sorts of black cherry are the finest of all fruit- 

 trees for shade, and are, therefore, generally chosen by farmers, who are 

 always desirous of combining the useful and the ornamental. Indeed 

 the Cherry, from its symmetrical form, its rapid growth, its fine shade, 

 and beautiful blossoms, is exceedingly well suited for a roadside tree in 

 agricultural districts. We wish we could induce the planting of ave- 

 nues of this and other fine-growing fruit-trees in our country neighbor- 

 hoods, as is the beautiful custom in Germany, affording ornament and a 

 grateful shade and refreshment to the traveller at the same moment. 

 Mr. London, in his Arboretum, gives the following account of the cherry 

 avenues in Germany, which we gladly lay before our readers : 



" On the Continent, and more especially in Germany and Switzer- 

 land, the cherry is much used as a roadside tree ; particularly in the 

 northern parts of Germany, where the apple and pear will not thrive. 

 In some countries the road passes for many miles together through an 

 avenue of cherry-trees. In Moravia, the road from Brunn. to Olmutz 

 passes through such an avenue, extending upwards of sixty miles in 

 length ; and in the autumn of 1828, we travelled for several days through 

 almost one continuous avenue of cherry-trees, from Strasburg by a cir- 

 cuitous route to Munich. These avenues, in Germany, are planted by 

 the desire of the respective governments, not only for shading the travel- 

 ler, but in order that the poor pedestrian may obtain refreshment on his 

 journey. All persons are allowed to partake of the cherries, on condi- 

 tion of not injuring the trees ; but the main crop of the cherries, when 

 ripe, is gathered by the respective proprietors of the land 011 which it 

 grows ; and when these are anxious to preserve the fruit of any particu- 

 lar tree, it is, as it were, tabooed ; that is, a wisp of straw is tied in a 

 conspicuous part to one of the branches, as vines by the roadsides in 

 France, when the grapes are ripe, are protected by sprinkling a plant 

 here and there with a mixture of lime and water, which marks the 

 leaves with conspicuous white blotches. Every one who has travelled 

 on the Continent in the fruit season, must have observed the respect 

 that is paid to these appropriating marks ; and there is something highly 

 gratifying in this, and in the humane feeling displayed by the princes 

 of the different countries in causing the trees to be planted. It would 

 indeed be lamentable if kind treatment did not produce a corresponding 

 return." 



SOIL AND SITUATION. A dry soil for the cherry is the universal 

 maxim, and although it is so hardy a tree that it will thrive in a great 

 variety of soils, yet a good sandy or gravelly loam is its favorite place. 

 It will indeed grow in much thinner and dryer soils than most other 

 fruit-trees, but to obtain the finest fruit a deep and mellow soil, of good 

 quality, is desirable. When it is forced to grow in wet places, or where 

 the roots are constantly damp, it soon decays and is very short lived. 

 And' we have seen this tree, when forced into too luxuriant a growth in our 

 over-rich Western soils, become so gross in its wood as to bear little or 

 no fruit, and split open in its trunk, and soon perish. It is a very 



