Vol. LXIX. No. 4043 
NEW YORK. APRIL 23, 1910 
WEEKLY, Si. 00 PER YEAR. 
'V 
THE CULTURE OF THE CHERRY. 
Developing An Orchard. 
The ’chefry is the most neglected of all orchard 
fruits. There is no other fruit known to the horti¬ 
culturist that is, grown with as little care upon the 
part of the grower as the sour cherry. Sour cherries 
are really very easy to grow in all soils and climates. 
The cherry bears early and regularly. The fruit is 
very much enjoyed by everyone, and always commands 
a high price in the market. Under these circum¬ 
stances, it is surprising how very few orchards there 
are on which any attempt is made at commercial 
cherry growing, and even more surprising to see how 
man. who knows of their value, is so indifferent about 
planting the cherry. The . propagation of the cherry 
is in a general ' way similar to that of the peach. 
Stocks are grown from seed, and these are budded 
with the desired varieties. 
My experience with 
cherries, both in the 
Ohio valley and the up¬ 
land or the river hill 
soils, lias been varied, 
especially in the valley. 
In the . valley I have 
found but three varieties 
that do extremely well; 
two of the.sour and one 
of the- sweet varieties— 
Montmorency ■ Monarch 
and Early Richmond 
(sour) and ' Napoleon 
(Royal Ann), a sweet 
cherry. In the hill-top 
orchards, all varieties 
that I have tried, includ¬ 
ing the following, have 
done well: Black Pleart, 
Black Tartarian, Gov. 
Wood, Napoleon, Yel¬ 
low Spanish and Ohio 
Beauty (sweet) and 
Dyehouse, May Duke, 
Montmorency, Monarch, 
Morello, Ostheim, Early 
Richmond and R e i n e 
Hortense (sour). While 
these are not near all of 
the standard varieties, 
they are sufficient to 
make a supply of “pie 
timber” from May until 
October. 
I much prefer Fall 
planting, but Spring 
planting is rather more common, only because it has. 
become the custom to deliver and handle nursery 
trees in the Spring. Sour cherries can be grown 
rather thickly on the ground. Of the dwarf or smaller 
topped varieties, such as Morello and Early Rich¬ 
mond, these may be successfully planted 12 and 14 
feet apart. Sweet cherries require a distance of from 
20 to 24 feet. The actual work of planting the cherry 
tree is performed as in planting the peach tree. To 
facilitate the planting of large orchards, the turning 
plow is much used, as in planting the peach. The 
cherry stands about midway between the plum and 
the peach in its habit of growth as well as its habit 
of fruit bearing. Contrary to the teachings, generally 
given by the horticulturist, to trim sparingly on the 
cherry, I have found that to keep it in a productive 
condition and of good shape, it requires considerable 
pruning, especially while young. 
The cherry tree should be headed low. Four to 
six main or scaffold limbs should be started; these, 
the second season, should be cut back about two- 
thirds . of the previous year’s growth. To give the 
tree the. desired shape, that of an inverted umbrella, 
the limbs should be. cut. leaving a bud on the outside 
of the limb-at the fop; this will cause the tree to 
branch out instead of branching in. The cherry is 
prone -to grow too many intermediate and cross 
limbs; these, of course, should be cut out if we are 
able to get over the tree in gathering the fruit. 
The cherry requires an abundance of air and sun¬ 
shine to ripen a crop of perfect fruit. The sweet 
cherry is subject to all diseases and insects within its 
reach, but the sour cherry-is remarkably free from 
serious insect depredations and fungus attacks. The 
leaf spot sometimes defoliates the tree early in the 
year, but not often enough to injure the tree seriously. 
Leaf spot is easily controlled with the lime and sulphur 
wash. The aphis or plant louse which attack’s the 
tender foliage of the cherry, is successfully destroyed 
A SUCCESSFUL CHERRY ORCHARD IN KENTUCKY. Fig. 1S3. 
by using tobacco tea; however, it should be treated 
on the first appearance, as the leaves curl up and 
protect the lice when once established, making spray¬ 
ing a difficult job. Among the cherry trees we grow 
cow peas, Soy beans and the clovers, such as Crimson, 
common Red and Sweet clover, these, for Winter 
cover crops, and to be turned under in the Spring 
as manure. After the trees have reached full size, or 
are pretty well grown, they are not cultivated, but 
the ground is sown to permanent grass, the grass 
being cut several times during the Summer’ and placed 
around the trees as a mulch. j. w. griffin. 
Kentucky. _ 
THE SOY BEAN. 
A Promising Forage Crop of Value. 
About 10 years ago the writer became interested 
in Soy beans and began experimenting with them. 
My first experience was with the I to San, and for 
many years we grew this quite extensively, and were 
well pleased with it. It yielded about 20 bushels of 
grain per acre for us when at its best, but it was 
very difficult to harvest, the pods forming quite close 
to the ground, and the habit being rather poor—that 
is, the vines were inclined to be half recumbent. Some 
years we succeeded fairly well harvesting it with a 
mowing machine; some years we pulled it by hand, 
sometimes we cut it with hoes. A few years ago, 
after reading some Government bulletins on the sub¬ 
ject, we became interested in other varieties. We 
secured as many of the promising kinds as we could 
from the Government, and tested them fairly. The 
results have both pleased and surprised us. A typical 
plant of Soy bean is shown at Fig. 184. This picture 
is taken from Farmers’ Bulletin 372. Last Fall Mr. 
C. V. Piper, of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, visited our test plot. As Mr. Piper 
states, it is no longer proper to encourage simply the 
growing of Soy beans; the varieties differ so greatly, 
and some are so far 
superior to others, that 
to be up-to-date at all, 
one must have some of 
the , best varieties. The 
habits of - - these plants 
differ as greatly as those 
..of any cultivated plant 
with which - w,e are fa¬ 
miliar. - This variation 
is in a way. a good 
thing, because Soy beans 
are used in three or four 
different ways, and its 
wide variation helps the 
different uses. Some 
varieties will mature in 
90 days; others will re¬ 
quire from 120 to 140 
days, or even longer. 
Some are half recum¬ 
bent or almost fully re¬ 
cumbent; others stand 
sturdily erect. Some 
have coarse stalks (al¬ 
though very strong and 
erect) ; others have 
much more slender 
stalks. Some have large, 
coarse leaves; others 
medium leaves. Some 
shed their leaves before 
the grain even begins to 
mature; others retain 
their leaves until ' the 
grain is practically ripe. 
It is obvious that all of 
these characteristics may 
in the plant’s cultivation. 
be made of use 
We hardly know whether the Soy bean is most 
useful for grain, silage, soiling, forage or soil im¬ 
provement. Different varieties are peculiarly adapted 
to each purpose, and it will depend largely upon the 
farmer’s own need as to which characteristic he should 
seek. As a grain crop, they can probably be used 
over the widest latitude, and probably more farmers 
will find them valuable in this-way than in any other. 
They may be used especially in the Central States, 
and by farmers who use oil meal or bran, either with 
dairy rations or for feeding other stock. Soy beans 
analyze sometimes as high as 38 per cent protein; 
this compares favorably with oil meal, while in pala- 
tability and digestibility they are very much superior 
to oil meal. All of our stock like them fully as well 
as they do corn, and we have very little trouble from 
indigestion. They are laxative, and when fed in 
moderate amounts are beneficial in this way; further¬ 
more, they seem to act as a tonic. Horses being fed 
moderate amounts of them become sleek and fat, with 
