THE CHERRY. 



539 



tion, which deserve more general attention on 

 the part of cultivators (vide Select List op 

 Cherries.) The finer varieties of them should 

 find a place in every cherry orchard. These may 

 be stigmatised as the progeny of our wild cherry, 

 or Merry of the English ; but what, let us ask, 

 is the parentage of our Dukes, Hearts, Bigar- 

 reaus, &c ? — they are the offspring of the wild 

 cherry, wherever they have come from. As to 

 soil, Mr Errington says, " Less preparation is 

 necessary for the cherry, in regard to soil, than 

 for any other fruit tree, as it is not so impatient 

 of indifferent subsoils as some of our other fruits, 

 neither is it so liable to disease, gumming — 

 generally through accidental wounds — being the 

 evil cherry trees are most liable to." This, we 

 think, admits of some qualification, else why, in 

 the same garden, in different soils, do cherries 

 differ so much in their health and productive- 

 ness 1 The cherry, we think, as we have stated 

 above, is exceedingly capricious as regards both 

 soil and situation. To prolong the season of 

 this delightful fruit, a tree or more, according 

 to the contemplated demand, of the earliest 

 sorts, should be planted on a southern wall to 

 begin the season with, and probably follow sharp 

 on the heels of the crop produced by artificial 

 means in the cherry-house or covered cherry- 

 wall ; for it should be borne in mind, that 

 from the time cherries or any other fruit make 

 their appearance on the dessert-table a supply 

 should be kept up ; and hence one of the many 

 advantages of not producing such fruits as 

 cherries, strawberries, peaches, &c, earlier than 

 a supply can be continued. With our orchard 

 system of growing the cherry, it may be expe- 

 dient to have a tree or two on east or west aspects, 

 to fill up the lapse between those on the south 

 wall and those in the open orchard. Again, 

 there is an excellent cherry called Buttner's 

 October Morello, which is one of the latest of 

 all ; a good breadth of a north wall should be 

 planted with it, which by netting, and after- 

 wards by covering with canvass during night, 

 may be continued up to November, frost only 

 putting an end to its season. There is an excel- 

 lent variety of Morello known as Sir Herbert 

 Taylor's Morello, which, by the way, we think 

 is identical with Ronald's large Morello, a variety 

 grown some years ago in Hampton Court gar- 

 dens. But really these royal gardens, in the olden 

 time, caused vast confusion in the nomenclature 

 of fruits ; everything extra good in them had the 

 word royal, or the name of some great person, 

 prefixed to it. The variety we allude to is a 

 good one, and may be heard of through the 

 Messrs Jacksons of Kingston, the lessees of the 

 royal gardens at present. This cherry should 

 be planted to some extent on a south wall, for 

 when ripened thoroughly it is a most agreeable 

 addition to our dessert sorts, which those on 

 north aspects seldom are. Those who are dis- 

 posed to adopt the dwarf-tree cherry-orchard 

 principle should consult what Mr Rivers, of 

 Sawbridgeworth, says and does upon the sub- 

 ject. He is a great man in the dwarfing way, 

 and acts upon the principle of beginning at 

 the beginning. By root- pruning he limits the 

 amount of sap to suit the circumstances he has 



in view, or, what is by far a more natural course, 

 by adapting the stock to the purposes sought. 

 The cherry, like most other fruit-bearing trees, 

 when grown in the fine climate of the south of 

 England, succeeds in borders and soils of a very 

 considerable depth. We would not, however, 

 recommend the same latitude to be given to 

 their roots in cold, and more especially damp 

 and wet localities. In these, we say, let the soil 

 be shallow, and thoroughly drained below. Let 

 the roots take rather a horizontal direction than 

 a perpendicular one, and make up in length and 

 breadth what you deny them in depth. 



Pruning and training the cherry. — The cherry 

 may be very successfully grown in most parts 

 of Scotland as a standard tree, or trained to an 

 espalier. Several of the cherries, and amongst 

 these the Morello, are well adapted to this mode 

 of training, and would be much more becoming 

 tenants to it than many of the hardy and coarse 

 apples we often see indulged with a place upon it. 

 In regard to training on walls, the horizontal 

 mode has been recommended by Harrison, For- 

 syth, and others, while the fan form is that usu- 

 ally adopted and in the highest repute amongst 

 our best cultivators. Pruning and training the 

 cherry in the horizontal manner are thus per- 

 formed: The young tree is headed down in 

 spring, the first year after being planted, to 

 seven buds. The second year the upright lead- 

 ing shoot is cut down to about a foot, and all the 

 side branches are laid in horizontally and never 

 shortened. This process goes on year after year 

 until the tree has attained the height of the 

 wall or espalier, and covered the extent laterally 

 which it is intended to occupy. The third year 

 natural spurs will begin to be formed, and artifi- 

 cial ones may be secured by cutting back the 

 young side-branches to two eyes or buds, which 

 buds will produce fruit the following season. The 

 regulation of the spurs afterwards is much the 

 same as that recommended by Harrison for apples 

 and pears (vide p. 481). The Morello, although 

 recommended by some to be trained in the hori- 

 zontal or half-fan manner, is by others treated 

 in the same manner as recommended by Sey- 

 mour for the peach (vide fig. 216), which tree in 

 its habits it somewhat resembles. Like it, it 

 bears its finest fruit on the young wood of the 

 preceding year's growth, and sometimes, but 

 with less certainty, on spurs formed on the 

 two-year-old wood, and scarcely ever on wood 

 of a greater age : therefore a sufficient supply 

 of young wood should be left, and as equally 

 distributed over the tree as possible, attending 

 to secure a constant supply near the bottom, as, 

 if this were neglected, it would render the 

 lower parts completely barren. Worn-out or ill- 

 placed branches must be removed at every 

 winter pruning, to make way for the young wood 

 to be laid in. Morellos are often ruined from 

 laying in the wood too close; and in conse- 

 quence of this the wood is too weak to produce 

 healthy, strong, fully - developed flower-buds, 

 and those it does produce, should they ever 

 expand into blossom, will upon examination be 

 found defective in the parts of fructification 

 from their debilitated state. Mr Underwood, 

 on examining the blossoms produced on such 



