182 RURAL NEW YORK 



The commercial development of cherry-growing 

 clings ratlier closely to the main i'ruit belt in the 

 Hudson Valley and the western lakes region. It 

 has much the same spread as the pear and the plum. 

 The sour cherries, according to Hedrick, make up 9U 

 per cent of the plantings, the Montmorency, Early 

 Richmond and English Morella leading in tlie order 

 named. They are grown in the Hudson Valley on 

 either bank of the river, but especially on the eastern 

 shore in southern Columbia County, which has the 

 largest number of trees of any county in the State. 

 In this district the fruit is shipped to market as 

 fresh fruit and the industry has not reached a high 

 development. 



In western New York there has been a very large 

 increase in the acreage of sour cherries in recent 

 years. The region of largest production is in the 

 Seneca Lake district, but it is an important fruit 

 through the Lake Ontario counties and has gained 

 a considerable foothold on the Lake Erie shore in the 

 grap,e district. The leading counties of the terri- 

 tory in the order of the number of trees to the 

 square mile of area are Seneca, Monroe, Wayne, 

 Ontario, Niagara, Orleans and Onondaga. Cherries, 

 therefore, seem to show a preference for the eastern 

 portion of this fruit belt. 



The development in the industry of canning cher- 

 ries has been chiefly responsible for the large in- 

 crease in acreage. Geneva is an important center 

 in this industry. 



The sweet cherry, which is very fastidious of soil 



