S4 TREATISE ON THE CULTURE ANij 



If the young shoots are properly trained, they will pro= 

 duce fruit the following year ; and in the the second year they 

 will produce more and finer fruit than a young tree that has 

 been planted ten or twelve years. 



It has been a general complaint, that Heart Cherries are 

 bad bearers when trained up as wall-trees ; but, by pruning 

 them as Duke Cherries, I have brought them to bear in the 

 same manner. 



Never make use of the knife in summer*, if it be possi- 

 ble to avoid it, as the shoots die from the place where they are 

 cut, leaving ugly dead stubs, which will infallibly bring on the 

 canker. I'hese shoots may be cut in the spring to about a 

 couple of eyes, as Duke Cherries, which will form a number 

 of flower-buds, as appears in Plate 4, Fig. 1. Fig, 2, is ah 

 old branch, to shew the manner in which the spurs are formed 

 whem the old method of pruning is followed, and the barren 

 unproductive state of the treef . 



When cherry-trees begin to produce spurs, cut out every 

 other shoot to make the tree throw out fresh wood : When 

 that comes into a bearing state, which will be in the following 

 year, cut out the old branches that remain ; by that method 

 you will be able to keep the trees in a constant state of bearing, 

 taking the same method as before directed with the fore-right 

 shoots. 



Great care should be taken to rub off man}' of them in the 

 month of May, (middle of June, for America) leaving only 

 such a number as you think will fill the tree. By so doing your 

 trees will continue in a fine healthy state, and not be in the least 

 weakened by bearing a plentiful crop of fruit. The reason is 

 obvious, the great exhalation which would be occasioned by 

 the sun and air in the' common mode of pruning is prevented, 

 by the composition keeping in the sap which nourishes the 

 branches and fruit. 



I cut some trees, as directed above, more than twelve 

 years ago, that are now in as good a state of bearing as they 

 v/ere in the third year after the operation, and likely to conti- 

 nue so for many years. 



* As Morello Cherries bear their fruit on the second year's wood, from 

 two to nve in a cluster, and not on spurs as other cherries do, the strongest 

 and cleanest wood should be left at full length in the summer, and all super- 

 fluous shoots be rubbed off. 



f At Ashted-Park, the seat of Richard Eagot Howard, Esq, near Epsom, 

 there is a cherry-tree between fifty and sixty feet high ; and, at four feet from 

 the g'round, nine feet six inches in circumference. This tree, with many others 

 of the same kind, was planted several years after the chesnuts, mentioned in 

 chapter 20. 



