STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 65 



what pleasure do I remember the time when the cherry tree was 

 in that healthy condition ; the favorite haunt of boys, girls and 

 robins in the long-, warm days of July, when bread and butter grew 

 stale to the taste, and the longing of nature for some refreshing 

 substitute, sought and found the gratifying boon amid the tall 

 grass where the fragrant strawberry loves to hide, or among the 

 spreading branches of the cherry trees in my grandfather's gar- 

 den, where each year a bountiful supply of fruit rewarded our pa- 

 tient waiting on the season's processes, and fixed upon our taste 

 the inextinguishable love of the "tame" cherry which subsequent 

 experiences of tropical and other fruits, then unknown or untasted, 

 have never been able to make me forget! But with this momen- 

 tary indulgence in one of the sweet reminiscences of my childhood, 

 I hasten to the consideration of more practical questions connected 

 with this discussion. 



In my treatment of this topic, I find it quite impossible to avoid 

 touching upon much of the ground which has been already trav- 

 ersed by some of our most distinguished horticultural writers, in 

 order to give to the discussion that free scope which the occasion 

 demands. Amid the immense mass of the present literature given 

 to the world, on this and kindred subjects, we find comparatively 

 little that is absolutely new ; and the fact that there exists the ne- 

 cessity for constant reiteration of venerable maxims, — of " line 

 upon line and precept upon precept" — may be a sufficient excuse 

 for employing the ideas, illustrations and language of more worthy 

 advocates of the cultivation of those gentle arts by which we live 

 and ultimately rise to a higher plane of civilized and social exis- 

 tence. 



Downing, who gives a somewhat elaborate account of the his- 

 tory, uses and mode of cultivation of this fruit, says : " The cherry 

 came originally from Asia, whence the Roman General, Lucullus, 

 after a victorious expedition into Pontus, was reputed to have 

 brought it to Italy from Cerasus, a town of that province, in the 

 year 69, B. C. According to Pliny, the Romans, 100 years after 

 this, had eight varieties in cultivation, and they were soon after- 

 wards carried to all parts of Europe. The seeds of the cultivated 

 cherry w€re brought to this country very early after its settlement, 

 both from England and Holland." 



Late American authors, in classifying the various kinds of cher- 

 ries, have discarded the methods of older writers, and the cherry 

 5 



