CHERRIES ON THE MAHALEB. 



85 



CHERRIES AS BUSHES AND PYRAMIDS ON THE MAHALEB 

 STOCK (CERASTJS MAHALEB). 



This stock has been long known in our shrubberies 

 as the " Perfumed Cherry its wood when burned 

 emits a most agreeable perfume. In France it is 

 called " Bois de St. Lucie," and it has been used there 

 for dwarf cherries for very many years ; — why it has 

 not been employed by English nurserymen, I cannot 

 tell. My attention was called to it in France some 

 fifteen or twenty years ago, since which I have used 

 it extensively, annually increasing my culture. Its 

 great recommendation is, that cherries grafted on it 

 will flourish in soils unfavorable to them on the com- 

 mon cherry stock, such as strong white clay, or soils 

 with a chalky subsoil. Although the trees grow most 

 vigorously the first two or three seasons, yet, after 

 that period, and especially if root-pruned, they form 

 dwarf prolific bushes, so as easily to be covered with 

 a net, or, what is better, with muslin or titlany, which 

 will protect the blossoms from frost in spring, and the 

 fruit more effectually from birds and wasps in sum- 

 mer ; thus giving us, what is certainly most rare, 

 cherries fully ripe, and prolonging their season till the 

 end of September. These dwarf bushes may be 

 planted from five to six feet apart, and their branches 

 pruned so that seven, or nine, or more, come out from 

 the centre of the plant, like a well-managed goose- 

 berry bush. These branches will, in May or June, 

 put forth, as in the horizontal shoots of pyramidal 

 pears, several shoots at their extremities, all of which 

 must be pinched orT to three leaves, leaving the lead- 



