252 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 18,1890. 
It is important that land under Cherries should not be cultivated, 
and for the first three or four years 4 feet from the trees is left 
untouched ; this is gradually increased when in about ten or twelve 
years the bush fruit is removed and the land laid to grass, the in¬ 
termediate trees being removed as before. 
(c). A Kentish plan is to put Cherries in Hop gardens at 3G feet 
apart, and after eight or ten years to lay the whole to grass ; they make 
much progress in this way, as Hops must be cultivated highly to be 
remunerative. A danger in this case arises from too free growth, as 
gum is induced by occasional frosts acting on the sappy wood. 
The pruning of Cherries is of the simplest. They are best allowed 
a year’s growth before cutting back, which should be severely done in 
order to produce a well-formed balanced head of, say, five branches. The 
extra shoots are cut away, and from this time onward the trees make a 
naturally regularly balanced head, and only require the boughs to be 
thinned when they cross each other or are too thickly placed. A man 
should be able to get his head and shoulders between them easily. If 
any shoots break or twist off in a gale or through the burden of fruit, 
they should be cleanly cut away with a sharp knife, and if the form of 
the tree is seriously injured by this loss, the trees must be cut in hard 
to form them again ; but, as a rule, the less cutting there is the better, 
and if a saw is necessary the exposed end should be rounded with a 
sharp knife to assist Nature in healing the wound. All young orchards 
should have the fruit gathered by means of step ladders, as the boughs 
cannot bear the weight of the ordinary ladders when young (under ten 
years old). 
When the trees make over a foot of growth yearly they will be better 
left without any stimulants, but if the new wood is but G to 9 inches 
long they should be assisted with the manure before named, or by the 
application of liquid manure or top-dressings of any description of 
dung, or failing that bone dust, Odam’s blood manure, Thomson’s 
manure, or any similar chemical fertiliser will assist them. The Cherry 
naturally roots upon the surface, and this feels the benefit at once. 
In making new orchards care should be taken to plant a consider¬ 
able quantity in one spot, otherwise birds will take the crop. A few 
Cherries in a mixed orchard are rarely a paying investment. When in 
bulk it pays to have a man to scare or shoot the birds on the ground 
day and night. To do this a hut should be provided for him to sleep in, 
and he can thus keep off other larger animals to whom Cherries are a 
luxury. In the day he assists to move the ladders for the pickers, who 
in Kent are frequently women, who earn good money at the work, 
either by day pay or agreement per half sieve of 24 lbs. One gathering 
generally clears the trees, but it pays well to pick the sunny side first, 
and also the outsides of the branches ; this causes the remaining fruit 
to swell up, and if these larger examples are marketed in 12 lb. baskets 
or “ quarters ” they frequently make 20s. to 30s. per bushel, or 5d. to 
9d. per lb. 
In setting out an orchard of Cherries care should be exercised to 
keep all of one kind together, and if alternate rows of the stronger 
kinds (such as Napoleon, Black Tartarian, Bigarreau, and Elton are 
made to alternate with such growers as Black Cluster or Corone, Black 
Hearts and Brown Hearts) the grass below is not so much shaded, and 
consequently is of better feeding quality. Another useful and delicious 
race of Cherries, but little grown out of Kent, are what are locally 
called Beds, being the Kentish and Flemish, or the Montmorency of the 
Continent. 
These are rather later than the sweet Cherries, and are far more 
delicious to preserve or for tarts than any others ; in fact, the jam from 
these sorts is a perfect sweetmeat, and comes near to Tamarinds in its 
delicate and pronounced ratafia like flavour. These (Reds) never make 
large trees, and are short lived, so that they are frequently used to plant 
between the larger kinds or for the odd distances on the outsides or in 
angles where there is not space for the strong growers. I would 
specially commend these to the Scotch growers, who would find them 
even better than their noted Dundee marmalade. Taste sample made 
1889. After the main boughs decay they send forth fresh growth from 
the stem or the stumps, and in that way fruit for fifty years, but their 
average life is only about twenty-five years, by which time they have 
well paid their way. This race are also the best for drying. The 
Morello Cherry is of similar growth, succeeds well as a standard, while 
the May Duke and others of that race are useful for sheltered spots. 
As regards varieties, the following list includes those generally 
planted for profit, and can be relied on for extended culture ; fully 
developed trees of two or three years in the head are worth 180s. to 250s. 
per 100, but the Kent growers prefer those with one year’s heads, at 
130s. to 170s. per 100. 
White or Heart Cherries .—Kent Bigarreau or Amber, Napoleon 
Bigarreau, Florence, Elton, Frogmore Bigarreau, Governor Wood. 
Bed Cherries. —Kentish, Flemish, Olivet, Morellos. 
Black Cherries .—Early Rivers, Werder’s Black Heart, Waterloo, 
Black Eagle, Black Cluster or Carone. 
Duke Cherries .—May Duke, Late Duke, Royal Duke. 
For private gardens the following are useful as standards :—Early 
Lyons, Emperor Francis, Ludwig’s Bigarreau, Nouvelle Royale, Trades- 
cant’s Black. 
In connection with this subject I would suggest that orchard trees 
should have at least a stem of G feet, and should be trees worked on the 
wild Gean, as the stems so formed are hardier and less liable to gum 
and die than when they are worked low and run up on their own 
stems ; and grafted trees are preferable to those “ budded.” 
Grass orchards of Cherries are largely planted in Kent, as there is 
always the chance of three crops, viz., Cherries, mutton, and wool, and 
it is rare for all these to fail. The following notes may interest your 
members as to the nature of Cherry orchards in Kent. The custom is 
to sell the fruit upon the trees about fourteen days after the flowering,, 
and from the fall of the hammer the buyer puts in his own men and 
takes all the risk, finding his pickers, overlookers, packers, &c., and de¬ 
livers them to the rail himself, the grower simply taking the proceeds 
of the sale less 5 per cent, commission. When it is considered that this 
only represents a part of the produce of the land, you will understand 
that a Cherry orchard on a holding often adds letting value to an 
estate or single farm. In fact a Cherry orchard never goes begging for a 
tenant. From £20 to £40 per acre is an average price for an established 
orchard ; choice lots have made £80 per acre. Plantations of dwarf 
Cherries are not grown except the Morellos, which, as pyramids, bear as 
fine fruit as from a wall, and from the large number of trees per acre 
must prove a profitable investment. 
There is yet another Cherry grown in Kent of great importance. It 
appears to be the wild Morello, or the native form of it. This produces 
a small flat fruit, which is somewhat acid in taste, but the juice is of 
high specific gravity, and is the base of the famous Grant’s Morell<> 
Cherry brandy, which is made at Maidstone only, and is to the so-called 
Cherry brandies of the trade and the Kirsche-waters of the Continent as 
real Highland whisky to poor gin. The maker is a neighbour of mine, and 
a most conscientious and painstaking and scientific distiller, who spares 
no pains or expense to maintain the high qualities of this wholesome 
and delicious cordial. The growth of this tree resembles a Birch more 
than a Cherry, and it soon assumes a pendant form from its copious 
crop and the wiry growth it makes yearly. 
I have dealt hitherto with Cherries on a large scale, but they may be 
profitably grown by cottagers on the gables of their houses, and by 
farmers on their walls and buildings, and will in these positions produce 
fine large fruit, which can readily be protected by fish netting, which is 
doubtless cheap in these parts. Such fruit would be ready to pick 
before the outside crops, and command a good price packed in ^ lb. or 
1 lb. punnets. 
The packing of Cherries is in Kent done in this way. After having 
first lined his basket with blue paper, the ends of which lap over about 
1^ foot (in order to turn back to cover the fruit when the basket is 
full). The fruit being gathered, the packer carefully passes them 
through his hands in tipping out the picker’s basket, and then removes 
any bird-pecked, unripe, or smashed fruit, and with a quick shake 
settles the fruit firmly in the receptacle. This is generally placed on 
the scales, so that the proper weight (24 lbs.) is given, allowance being 
made for the basket. He then levels the top with his hand, and 
spreading the paper over and tucking in the edges, places a small 
portion of brake, short dry grass, or fine straw upon the top, and 
fastens this with two pieces of wood pointed at each end to fix under 
the rim of the sieve. After cutting off the ends that protrude beyond 
the outside of the rim the work is done. 
The baskets have a hollow base, so that when set one on the other 
the fruit is not smashed. The sticks usually used to pack are split 
hazel of about 2 inches round, or the shoots of the Cob nuts taken 
out in “ wanding ” the Nut plantations. 
The price of Cherries varies much with the weather and the crop, 
from Id. to 8d. per lb. In your district, where possibly Cherries could 
be delivered direct to the shops, the packing at the top could be 
avoided by using baskets which fit one on the other, and they would 
in this way be less bruised, and open, fresh, and inviting. 
GARDEN CHERRIES. 
For pyramids on Mahaleb stock, where they can be netted, Early 
Rivers, Belle d’Orleans, May Duke, Black Eagle, Governor Wood, Arch- 
