150 CHERRY. 



vegetables : it evidently continues to rise during the 

 growing season, but never returns: what is in the 

 branched head of a tree when the leaves drop, re- 

 luains in a congealed state all the winter, and until 

 the warmth of spring again puts it in motion. Much 

 indeed has been written on this subject by vegetable 

 physiologists ; but their writings will never be com- 

 prehensible by common understandings, till they 

 drop their ridiculous parade of hard words, by which 

 tlie phenomena they treat of, are ten times more 

 obscured than elucidated ; and what is worse, much 

 of this obscure matter is published and republished 

 from one periodical to another, till it becomes actually 

 nauseating. 



When the May duke is planted as standards in an 

 orchard, the trees should not be placed nearer toge- 

 ther than thirty feet each way ; on a wail twenty 

 feet distances will be enough ; though if the sail be 

 light, nearer distances will suffice. Any aspect suits 

 this cherry ; but to have the fruit for the table as 

 long in the season as possible, trees should be planted 

 on every aspect ; for those fruit from the north as- 

 pect will be fully as acceptable as the earliest from 

 the south wall. 



As cherries are eagerly preyed on by birds, they 

 require netting over to preserve them. In the 

 Royal Gardens it used to be a custom to bag the 

 fruit singly about the twelfth of August, the birth 

 day of his late Majesty George IV. On these oc- 

 casions a numerous squad of young men were em- 

 ployed, and who were jokingly cautioned by the 



