55Q 



THE CHERRY. 



the only mode of managing this tree, to ensure a crop of fruit, is to have a 

 regular succession of laterals, the growth of the last year, all along the 

 shoots. In many gardens these laterals are not laid in ; and though the tree 

 by this mode does not assume such a neat appearance, yet the crop of fruit 

 we believe is greater. Disbudding early in spring is of as much use in 

 setting the fruit of the cherry in the open garden as we have seen it to be 

 in the forcing-house (1028). As in all young trees the blossoms are for a 

 number of years comparatively weak, the number of blossom -buds removed 

 from them in thinning should be great in proportion. Old or diseased 

 cherry-trees may sometimes be renovated by cutting in or heading down, 

 but in general the wounds necessarily made exude so much gum as to pre- 

 vent their ever bemg entirely covered with bark, in consequence of which 

 the stems and roots rot in the interior. To prevent this evil as much as 

 possible the soil should always be renewed at the time of amputating. 



1193. Gathering and keeping. — The fruit can only be gathered by hand, 

 and care should be taken not to pull out with the foot-stalks of the fruit 

 any of the buds which are to produce the blossoms of the succeeding year ; 

 unless, indeed, these buds should be so abundant that the lessening their 

 number will be advantageous rather than otherwise. Where no buds can 

 be spared, the stalks may be cut with scissors. For the dessert the cherry 

 is never kept longer than a day or two. In gathering the fruit from 

 standard trees, the orchardist's crook, fig. 835, will be found useful in 

 bringing the branches within reach of the gatherer. 



1194. Diseases, insects, casualties, S^c. — The gum is almost the only 

 disease to which cherry-trees are liable ; the exudation when it has once 

 commenced is not easily checked, but if the tree is healthy m other respects, 

 and in a suitable soil and situation, the gum will not do much injury ; in 

 an unfavourable soil it commonly brings on canker. Against a wall the 

 cherry is liable to the attacks of. the red spider, aphides, and some other 

 insects, which may be destroyed or kept under by the usual means. 

 Syringing the trees with tobacco-w^ater and soft-soap, before the blossoms 

 have expanded, will destroy every insect to which the cherry is liable, and 

 they may be washed with clear lime-water from the time the fruit is set till 

 it has begun to colour. The greatest enemies to ripe cherries are birds, from 

 which they are to be protected by netting, in the case of walls and espaliers, 

 and by the use of the gun in the case of standards. Cats (370) may also 

 be employed for this purpose, or some of the other modes described in 

 pp. 119 and 120. 



1195. A Dutch cherry garden. — In Holland, and other parts of the con- 

 tinent, it is a favourite practice with the possessors of gardens to eat the 

 fruit direct from the trees or plants, and this was formerly more generally 

 the case in Britain than it is at present. In the villas of the w^ealthy, a 

 small garden, in some retired part of the grounds near the house, was set 

 apart for this purpose, and planted with summer fruits, especially cherries, 

 gooseberries, and strawberries ; and in some cases this garden was entirely 

 covered with a roof of netting. One of the most complete gardens of this 

 kind, in the neighbourhood of London, existed, in 1828, at Hylands, near 

 Chelmsford. It was in the form of a parallelogram, twice as long as broad, 

 and contained a quarter of an acre. It was surrounded by a wire fence, 

 ten feet high, the texture being such as to exclude small birds ; that is, 

 each mesh was two inches high by one inch broad. The principal standard 



