ON THE CHERRY 



gent, but which is not without qualities of virility 

 and hardiness that might make it a valuable 

 hybridizing agent. 



This is perhaps the hardiest of all cherries. I 

 have seen it growing wild nearly as far north as 

 Hudson Bay, in regions where it is not uncommon 

 for the mercury to fall sixty degrees below zero. 



The California holly-leaf cherry and the Cata- 

 lina cherry are species that may be available for 

 the development of other desirable qualities — for 

 it is not in hardiness alone that the best varieties 

 sometimes are found wanting; though the species 

 just named are so far separated biologically and 

 physiologically that it may be impossible to com- 

 bine them. 



Many cultivated cherries, for example, are 

 unable to withstand the warm spring rains with- 

 out serious loss from cracking of the fruit. Some- 

 times almost an entire crop will thus be ruined. 

 Again many cherries are susceptible to blight. A 

 bulletin issued by the State Commission of Hor- 

 ticulture of California lists more than twenty in- 

 sects — ^leaf hoppers, scales, mites, caterpillars, and 

 borers — that prey more or less upon root or bark 

 or leaf of the cherry tree, or that attack its fruit. 



Then there are inherent maladies, such as the 

 tendency to overflow and condensation of sap, 

 forming an injurious gum that may induce decay 



[99] 



