Page 38 BETTER FRUIT June 



CHERRY HEAVEN— WERE FIRST GROWN YEARS AGO 



BY PROFESSOR H. E. VAN DEMAN, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



JUST when and where the culture of 

 the cherr}^ was begun we will never 

 know, but it was in the long-ago, 

 probably before the days of Grecian 

 and Roman civilization, and from what 

 can be gathered from history Southern 

 Europe was the place of its nativity. 

 That cherries have been a popular fruit 

 there is no doubt, and when the home- 

 seekers from beyond the seas landed on 

 the American continent they were not 

 long in planting seeds of this choice 

 fruit in their new homes. This was done 

 by the pioneers on the shores of both 

 oceans, and success rewarded their 

 efforts in nearly all sections except 

 along the Gulf of Mexico, where the 

 climate was found to be too warm. The 

 cherry tree, no matter what the species 

 or variety, loves a moderately cool and 

 equable climate. Sudden changes from 

 mild to frigid temperatures, or the 

 reverse, are a very serious hindrance to 

 successful cherry culture, and with many 

 varieties are fatal, although a steadily 

 cool or warm climate may be very favor- 

 able to them. 



There are many species of the genus 

 Cerasus, to which all the cherries belong, 

 both wild and cultivated, native and for- 

 eign. We have in America several 

 species that attain gigantic size and are 

 classed among the large forest trees, 

 their lumber being of great value for 

 making furniture because of its fine 

 grain, hardness, durability and rich, red- 

 dish color. At one time it rivaled 

 mahogany in popularity, and would be 

 so now if the supply was not almost 

 exhausted. But from none of our native 

 species has there been developed as yet 

 any variety that is of real value as an 

 edible fruit-bearing tree, although some 

 of them are barely eatable; nor have 

 any of them, so far, proved to be very 

 serviceable as stocks upon which to bud 

 or graft the cultivated kinds because of 

 their mutual uncongeniality. 



In Japan the great spring festi\'al is 

 that of the time of cherry blooming, and 

 next to the chrysanthemum the cherry 

 tree is the most popular of all their floral 

 triumphs. We in America have been 

 slow to import the many varieties of 

 Japanese ornamental cherries and add 

 them to our garden decorations, but it 

 is being done now to some small extent. 

 Strange as ft may seem, those enter- 

 prising people know almost nothing of 

 the cherry as a fruit, for none of the 

 trees they grow bear fruit of any value 

 for eating. Many of them have double 

 flowers and bear no fruit at all. 



The European cherries, on the con- 

 trary, are the great fruit bearers nf all 

 the world. They are divided into at 

 least two botanical species, and of the.^e 

 there is an untold number of varieties, 

 but so far as I know there are no crosses 

 or hybrids between these two species. It 

 would seem that there is great oppor- 

 tunity for the production of new varieties 

 of value by the artificial cross-polleniza- 

 tion of some of the best of the old ones, 

 and possibly by introducing the charac- 



teristics of some of our native species, 

 provided they are not too diverse to be 

 cross-pollenated. 



With the development of American 

 horticulture the cherry was carried to 

 the remotest corners of the country and 

 tested in the most practical way by those 

 who did the pioneering. In the rich 

 soil of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia the different classes all flourished 

 and bore abundantly. The Mazzards, 

 which was propa.gated mostly from seeds, 

 had many varieties that made tall, pyra- 

 midal trees more than fifty feet high, 

 and with trunks three feet and more in 

 diameter. Such trees sometimes bore 

 fifty bushels or more of cherries, but 

 they were usually small and unsalable, 

 and anyone who wanted them could have 

 them for the picking. There are such 

 trees yet standing in the hilly sections of 

 the Appalachian range that are healthy 

 and vigorous, although very old. 



The mission fathers from Spain planted 

 cherry seeds in California long ago, and 

 the trees were found to succeed there 

 very well. But the most notable and by 

 far the most successful of all the experi- 

 ments made in new territory was by the 

 Lewellings, who crossed the plains and 

 mountains from Iowa to the Pacific 

 Northwest. They went to the great 

 Oregon country more than fifty 3'ears 



ago, carrying fruit trees of several kinds 

 by ox team, and finally located on the 

 eastern bank of the Willamot (this is the 

 original and correct spelling, and was 

 used by Washington Irving and other 

 authorities) River, where is now the 

 present town of Milwaukie. There the 

 cherry trees flourished and bore abun- 

 dantly. Seeds from them were planted 

 and new varieties originated that were 

 better than the old standards from 

 which they came. The Mazzard type 

 was the one that gave the greatest 

 results, and such varieties as Napoleon 

 and Tartarian were used as parent stocks. 

 There are today no better varieties 

 grown than those originated at the old 

 Lewelling homestead, the Bing being 

 perhaps the most notable of all. It was 

 named in honor of a faithful Chinese 

 workman on the. place, and this name is 

 now known on every continent and will 

 go down to the centuries to come as 

 belonging to one of the best cherries that 

 has ever blessed the world. And it is 

 not the only good one that came from 

 the Lewelling experiments. I have been 

 there to see the old trees that are left 

 and the birthplace of the cherry industry 

 of the Northwest. The humble efforts 

 of these good men bore fruit far beyond 

 their expectations. As cherry culture 

 grew apace it spread over the entire 



