THE CHERRY. 
247 
trosts, it is, however, well to plant it on the north sides of hills, is 
order to retard it in the spring. 
Propagation. The finer sorts are nearly always propagated 
by budding on seedlings of the common black mazzard, which 
is a very common 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 per- 
sons preserve their cherry stones in sand, either in the cellar or 
in the open air until spring, but we have found this a more pre- 
carious mode ; the cherry being one of the most delicate of 
seeds when it commences to vegetate, and its vitality is fre- 
quently 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 gene- 
rally 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 cher- 
ries 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 
clean, straight, smooth stems, showing no clumsy joint when 
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. 
When dwarf trees are required, the Morello seedlings are 
used as stocks ; or when very dwarf trees are wished the Per- 
fumed Cherry, (Cerasus Mahaleb,) is employed ; but as stan- 
dards 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 vigour, 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 
