CERASUS, CHERRY TREE. 197 



CULTIVATION. 



The cherry tree is not at all hard to grow in natural soil. However, it does better in 

 loose earth with some depth than it does in soil that's too hard, damp, or cold, where the 

 flowers are prone to abort, & the fruit has less flavor or more acidity. 



The pits of heart-shaped & round cherries propagate true to type, or produce 

 varieties of their own kind. Sometimes these are good, but most often they're poor ones 

 like those that you find in the woods & in vineyards where a lot of cherry trees grow from 

 pits. 



Thus the good kinds & their varieties are perpetuated & propagated by grafting 

 them on wild cherry trees, on cherry trees with round fruit. & on Sainte-Lucie cherry 

 trees. All of the cherry trees graft well onto the wild cherry tree, & this is the only 

 suitable stock for those that one wishes to raise as tall standard trees in the open. It has 

 the advantage that it doesn't grow any, or very few, suckers. The Sainte-Lucie cherry tree 

 has the same advantage. It accepts grafts from all kinds of cherry trees very well & adapts 

 to the worst conditions. 



On stocks of cherry trees of the round fruit group, whether grown from pits or 

 from suckers, grafts from their own group succeed better than do grafts from cherry trees 

 of the heart-shaped group. But it's very inconvenient due to the large number of suckers 

 that grow from the bottom of the tree & from the roots. Half-standard & low-stemmed 

 cherry trees to be grown in the open or as bush or espalier trees are grafted onto stocks of 

 the Sainte-Lucie cherry tree or on those of cherry trees with round fruit. 



All cherry trees are grafted by cleft grafting, by dormant bud grafting, or even 

 better by immediate growth bud grafting. This is performed on the stocks when the 

 cherry trees begin to bloom. 



Cherry trees with round fruit also can be propagated 



