CHERRY-TREE. 



77 



for tli€ market, on account of its greater bulk and weight. 



— -Loudon. 



CHERRY-TREE. — Prunus ctrasus. — The cherry is a 

 genus of plants, which comprises too many species to be 

 described in this place. Loudon's catalogue contains thir- 

 ty-six kinds, but does not include ail that are cultivated in 

 England ; and there are several varieties in the United 

 States, which are natives of the country. See Tkacher^s 

 Orchardisi^ Coxe on Fruit-TreeSj and Domestic Encyclopedia, 

 Gen. Dearborn's communication for N. E, Farmer^ vol. v. 

 p. 210. 



" The cherry-tree Is propagated by seeds and by suckers, 

 when stems are wanted ; by seeds alone, when new varie- 

 ties are required ;^ by scions, when you have to work on 

 old subjects ; and by buds, when your trees are young. If 

 intended for dwarfs, bud your plants at twOj and if for 

 standards, at four years of age. The spring succeeding 

 this operation is the time for transplanting ; which should 

 be done carefully, and in the manner prescribed for setting 

 out apple-trees. The fashion or form of the trees will 

 direct the distance at which they are to stand from each 

 other ; between standards this should not be less than thirty 

 feet ;| and between pyramids and espaliers, not less than 

 twenty. 



" Though in our climate all the varieties of the cherry- 

 tree do v/ell as standards and pyramids, and are therefore 

 generally and properly cultivated in these forms, still it 

 may be useful to remark, that two of them, the May duke 

 and the Morello, when trained against walls, give fruit not 

 only of increased precocity, but of much finer flavour ; a 

 circumstance in which they differ, not only from all other 

 varieties of their own races, but from fruit-trees of all other 

 kinds. 



"As the cherry grows on small spurs, pushing from the 

 sides and ends of two, three, and four years old wood, and 

 as the procession of new buds is constant, it follows as a 

 general rule, that 'the knife must be sparingly employed;' 

 and as a particular one in relation to wall-trees, that 'bear- 

 ing branches are not to be shortened, if room can be found 

 for extending them.' These rules, however rigorously 



* The seeds employed should be taken from ripe fruit, committed promptly 

 to a bed of saiicl, and kept in a dry and cool place till the spring; when uiey 

 may be set out in rows two and a half feet apart. 



+ Miller thinks the distance should be forty feet. 



