THE CHERRY. 365 



The cultivation of dwarf cherries would greatly facilitate 

 the use of net screens for covering entire orchards, as some- 

 times practised in Holland and England. The boundary fence 

 is made of wire (or wood) lattice, so as to exclude small birds. 

 At regular distances, through the inclosed area, are inserted 

 into the earth wooden or tile sockets for the reception of poles 

 or props to support the net. These poles have each a small cir- 

 cular board nailed on their tops, to prevent injury to the net- 

 ting. The boundary fence is supplied with hoops, to which 

 the net is readily attached. When the cherries begin to ripen, 

 it is elevated on several of the poles, each carried by a man, 

 and spread over the garden, the rest of the poles being easily 

 inserted in their sockets afterward. All birds are thus com- 

 pletely excluded. During rain or dewy evenings, the net is 

 stretched to its utmost extent. In dry weather it is slackened, 

 and forms a festooned vault over the whole cherry garden. 

 Its durability is increased by soaking it in tan once a year. 

 Ten square rods of ground, comprised within a circle of fifty- 

 nine feet in diameter, would contain forty dwarf cherry-trees 

 at eight feet distance, or ninety trees at five feet distance. 



Sometimes the cherry crop is much lessened by premature 

 rotting of the fruit. This is due to a fungous disease. Pick 

 the cherries before they are fully ripe, and when they are dry. 

 Spraying with Bordeaux will help. 



At the South and West the finer varieties of the Heart and 

 Bigarreau cherries do not flourish. This is supposed to be 

 caused by the hot sun upon the bark of the trunk, and by 

 rapid growth preventing a sufficient hardening of the wood. 

 The Mayduke, Early Richmond, and the Morelloes generally 

 succeed well. Grafting the Heart varieties upon these hardy 

 sorts has been found useful, and training the trees with low 

 heads, or with but little bare trunk, is an additional security. 

 The cracking and bursting of the bark at the West are partly 

 prevented by these precautions ; but the safest way is to con- 

 fine the culture of this fruit to the sorts above named, which 

 are least affected. Cherries of any kind are unsatisfactory in 

 the Southern States, those only which are grafted upon Maha- 

 leb stock giving any satisfaction. 



