THE CHERRY. 



449 



hardy tree, and will bear a great variety of exposures without in- 

 jury. In deep warm valleys, liable to spring frosts, it is, however, 

 well to plant it on the north sides of hills, in order to retard it in the 

 spring. 



Propagation". The finer sorts are nearly always propagated by bud- 

 ding on seedlings of the common black mazzard, which is a very com- 

 mon kind, producing a great abundance of fruit, and very healthy, free 

 growing stocks. To raise these stocks, the cherries should be gathered 

 when fully ripe, and allowed to lie two or three days together, so that 

 they may be partially or wholly freed from the pulp by washing them in 

 water. They should then be planted immediately in drills in the seed 

 plot, covering them about an inch deep. They will then vegetate in 

 the following spring, and in good soil will be fit for planting out in the 

 nursery rows in the autumn or following spring, at a distance of ten or 

 twelve inches apart in the row. Many persons preserve their cherry 

 stones in sand, either in the cellar or in the open air, until spring, but 

 we have found this a more precarious mode ; the cherry being one of the 

 most delicate of seeds when it commences to vegetate, its vitality is 

 frequently destroyed by leaving it in the sand twenty-four hours too 

 long, or after it has commenced sprouting. 



After planting in the nursery rows, the seedlings are generally fit for 

 budding in the month of August following. And in order not to have weak 

 stocks overpowered by vigorous ones, they should always be assorted 

 before they are planted, placing those of the same size in rows together... 

 Nearly all the cherries are grown with us as standards. The English^ 

 nurserymen usually bud their standard cherries as high as they wish 

 them to form heads, but we always prefer to bud them on quite young" 

 stocks, as near the ground as possible, as they then shoot up cleaiL,. 

 straight, smooth stems, showing no clumsy joint where the bud and the 

 stock are united. In good soils the buds will frequently make shoots,, 

 six or eight feet high, the first season after the stock is headed back. 

 Grafting of the cherry may be performed the same as with the apple and 

 pear, but the work, to be successful, should always be performed early in 

 the season, before the frost is well out of the ground. If omitted until 

 the buds begin to swell strongly the chances for success are less than those 

 of failure. 



When dwarf trees are required, the Morello seedlings are used as 

 stocks, or the Perfumed Cherry (Cerasus Mahaleb) is employed ; but 

 as standards are almost universally preferred, these are seldom seen 

 here. Dwarfs in the nursery must be headed back the second year, in 

 order to form lateral shoots near the ground. 



Cultivation. The cherry, as a standard tree, may be said to require 

 little or no cultivation in the Middle States, further than occasionally 

 supplying old trees with a little manure to keep up their vigor, pruning 

 out a dead or crossing branch, and washing the stem with soft soap 

 should it become hard and bark-bound. Pruning, the cherry very little 

 needs, and as it is always likely to produce gum (and this decay), it 

 should be avoided, except when really required. It should then be 

 done in midsummer, as that is the only season when the gum is not more- 

 or less exuded. The cherry is not a very long-lived tree, but in favor- 

 able soil the finest varieties generally endure about thirty or forty years.. 

 In the County of Perry, Ohio, there is a tree of the Black Mazzard- 

 variety which is eighty feet in height, and four feet one inch in dia- 



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