THE CHERRY 



37 



Form of Tree. — The best form of training for wall cherry trees is the 

 fan shape, and three-year-old trained trees are the best. At this age the frame- 

 work of the tree will have been properly formed at the nursery, and its symmetry 

 afterwards will be easily maintained by the grower. Some growers prefer and 

 recommend the horizontal form of training for wall cherry trees. No doubt 

 they succeed very well in this way, but in my opinion better results are obtained 

 from fan-trained trees. I have always found it a good plan occasionally to buy 

 a few mkiden cherry trees, planting them wherever there is a small space avail- 

 able on the walls, afterwards training them as one may wish. 



Planting. — Presuming that fan-shaped trees have been obtained, and that 

 planting time (end of October or November) 

 has arrived, the trees should be placed from 

 12 to 15 feet apart, with a tall standard 

 (fan-trained) planted between. In the fol- 

 lowing season they will make satisfactory 

 progress, and it must not be forgotten that 

 a mulch of short manure should be applied 

 over the roots and occasional waterings be 

 given in hot, dry weather, and the oftener 

 the syringe or the garden water-engine can 

 be used in washing the trees so much 

 better will their progress be. As a rule, 

 the growth a- young cherry tree makes the 

 first year after planting is small, and scarcely 

 any pruning will be necessary the following 

 winter ; but should it happen, as occasion- 

 ally is the case, that a strong shoot is formed, 

 this must be corrected in the same way as 

 directed for the peach, &c., namely, by 

 lifting the tree and cutting back the strong 

 root which will invariably be found to have 

 formed. The second year after planting is 

 an important one in the life of the tree, for 

 during that year it will have made good growth, and this the cultivator must 

 dispose so as to build up a symmetrical tree. When first planted, a three-year- 

 old tree should have from four to six branches. After the second year's growth 

 it should have six more branches. Every year will add its quota until the centre 

 of the tree is complete. Future development will be confined to the extreme 

 ends of the branches, and these, as time goes on, will extend a long way ; for the 

 cherry tree lives to be old, and, as a rule, the older it is the more freely it bears. 

 The question of pruning is usually a very simple matter, for the reason that the 

 tree is such a persistent and regular cropper that wood growth is limited. Spur- 

 pruning is the system recommended, and this consists in cutting back the current 

 year's shoots which form on the branches to within a couple of buds of their 

 bases, to shortening the fruit-spurs when they become too large and are too far 

 away from the wall, and also occasionally to thinning out fruit-spurs on the 



Preceding Year's Growth Stopped and 

 Shortened 



(/) Fruit produced from blossom buds formed 

 at side of wood buds in previous year ; 

 {g) spurs ; (A) shoot pushed from lowest 

 bud of preceding year's wood, stopped at 

 fifth leaf; {i) point of shortening at winter 

 pruning. 



