20 MISC. PUBLICATION 61, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



BLACK CHERRY 



In the Apiary and Douglas plantations are a few fairly largo 

 trees of black cherry, but these are mostly crooked or forked. The 

 cherry trees in the Apiary plantation are in a small pure stand, 

 (pi. 4 B), which at 25 years of age averaged 35 feet in height, and 7 

 inches in diameter breast high (dominant trees 55 feet and 10 

 inches) — a little larger than white pine of the same age. In the 

 Douglas plantations the cherry trees are scattered in a white pine 

 stand and are not quite as large as the pines. 



Black cherry in the pure stands on Long Ridge and in a mixed 

 stand in the Approach Road plantation has not done so well. In 

 the latter plantation it has grown as thriftily as associated yellow 

 poplar of the same age, but much more poorly than shortleaf pine 

 planted 10 years later. 



In the Swannanoa plantation the black cherry was a marked 

 failure. (PI. 4, C.) These trees 26 years after planting were on an 

 average only 15 feet tall, and the biggest dominants were less than 25 

 feet. Sugar maples planted at the same time on the same hillside 

 were twice the height and diameter of the cherries. 



During the first season after planting the cherry grew very well 

 in the pure plantings of the Long Ridge and Swannanoa plantations 

 and not more than 5 per cent died. Two years later, however, their 

 progress was less satisfactory, and at 20 years from planting comment 

 was made on the very poor growth of the Swannanoa trees. 



Schenck believed that pines helped the cherry along. He wrote 

 that cherry would grow slowly for several years and then make a fresh 

 start even though the pines had a lead of as much as 10 feet. Good 

 large cherry trees are, indeed, found in the Long Ridge and Douglas 

 plantations, and it may be partly because of the crowding by the 

 pines that they have grown well. In nature cherry is seldom found in 

 pure stands, and it would not be surprising if it failed when planted 

 without other species in mixture. But the good stand of cherry in the 

 Apiary plantation is essentially pure, and conversely, the Approach 

 Road cherries do not seem to have been helped much by the pines. 



OAK 



Planted oaks have, for the most part, grown poorly at Biltmore. 

 The death rate among new T ly planted trees was frequently large. 

 In one of the Long Ridge plantings 30 per cent of the chestnut 

 oaks died within two months after planting. After another two 

 months 15 per cent more were gone; and by the next spring 60 per 

 cent of the trees planted were gone. Of the white oaks, 10 per 

 cent died in the first two months, and by the following spring only 

 50 per cent were left. 



The best planted oaks at Biltmore are in the Rice Place plantation. 

 (PL 4, A.) There, in one 8-acre pure stand of white oak, the trees at 

 18 years of age were only about 5 feet shorter than white pine of the 

 same age. Like sugar maple, however, they were more slender than 

 the pine, having a diameter only half as great. Fifteen per cent of 

 the trees of this stand have died. 



A near-by 1-acre stand is much poorer, the trees being only a 

 third as tall. The reason for this dwarfing is not obvious, but pre- 

 sumably it is due to some unfavorable soil condition which has not 



