164 



CHERRY. 



young wood is produced, which the pruner has to 

 choose from. An equal distribution of this over all 

 the space occupied by the tree, will give as regular 

 a crop. If too many of these shoots be left, the fruit 

 will be correspondingly small; if left rather thin, the 

 fruit will be very much larger. No wall tree is 

 more healthy or easier kept in order than the morella ; 

 and no cherry-tree, if planted in rather a shady 

 situation, pays better as a standard, that is, provided 

 it has its favourite soil. 



Among the many thousands of this favourite cherry, 

 which the author has raised, trained, and pruned, in 

 the course of the last threescore years, some he has 

 observed have done better than others ; and there- 

 fore he cannot withhold a necessary piece of infor- 

 mation concerning one instance, in which he saw both 

 the trees and crop in the greatest perfection, and 

 this he does to show his own opinion of what is best 

 for this kind of fruit. 



In the Surrendon garden, of which he had charge, 

 a north wall, ten feet high, had a border twelve feet 

 w^ide, and very shallow, reposing on loose or rubble 

 rock : the soil was a dark hazelly loam, of rather 

 inferior quality. The roots were all very near the 

 surface ; those nearest the stem actually above it. 

 Five trees were originally planted against this wall 

 sit sixteen feet distances apart ; but meeting in a 

 few years, the second and fourth trees were removed, 

 leaving the centre tree at thirty-two feet from the 

 end ones. Even at this greater distance the branches 

 again met; but, during their progress, being kept 



