FRUIT CULTURE IN WISCONSIN. 
THE CHERRY. 
339 
The Cherry has found but little favor among fruit growers 
of the West. The extreme tenderness of the sweet varieties, 
has rendered their cultivation next to a total failure. A vari¬ 
ety of the English Red Pie Cherry, suitable for culinary pur¬ 
poses and wine, succeeds well in all soils, and one or two vari¬ 
eties of the Morelloes and Dukes, worked upon the Mahaleb 
stock, receiving garden cultivation, have done very well. The 
cherry is adapted to but few and limited latitudes, and is not the 
fruit for the world. The prairie farmers must plant with care. 
Mazzard roots, commonly used for stocks to work upon at the 
East, are wholly unfit for prairie soils, until we adopt and prac¬ 
tice a more effectual mode of drainage. No fruit tree is more 
sensitive and impatient of water than this, (the roots being soft 
and sponge), and none will suffer more from late spring frosts, 
after the buds are swelling ; therefore the greatest caution is 
necessary in planting that the exposure be such as will afford 
good drainage, and naturally prevent the too early starting of 
the buds. 
Trees may be set fifteen feet apart, and in addition to the 
winter mound protection, wind the body with a straw rope, 
such as a foreigner only knows how to make. 
The orchardist who has done this much with the standard 
fruits, must not “ bask in the noon day sun,” and think his 
task is finished. Quite too many have done* so ; and having 
selected the best of sites, prepared the ground with much pains, 
and planted the choicest fruits, have then left them to the cold, 
bleak winds, uncared for and unprotected, till of the thousands 
of trees annually planted, nine tenths come to an untimely end. 
The Qareful orchardist will not only sufficiently protect his 
fruit trees from the depredations of cattle, but will also pro¬ 
vide wind-breakers, by surrounding his orchard with some of 
the fast-growing forest trees, as soft maple, cottonwood, pop¬ 
lars, basswood, elms, Ac., and then, outside of all, plant a . 
hedge of buck-thorn, which has proven hardy in this vicinity 
during the last ten years, and which, (though it does not come 
