Chapter III: Cherry Culture (1)

The magnitude of the cherry industry in the United States is not generally appreciated. This is because cherries are very largely grown in small home plantations and the product is either consumed at home and in local markets, or is sent to canning factories and is therefore disposed of without the display attending the production and marketing of fruits sold in the general market. The following figures from the last census show the importance of the industry. There were in 1909, according to the census taken in 1910, 11,822,044 bearing cherry trees in the United States and 5,621,660 trees not of bearing age. The bearing trees bore 4,126,099 bushels of fruit valued at $7,231,160. When this, the thirteenth census, was taken, the cherry ranked fifth in commercial value among orchard fruits, being surpassed in the order named by the apple, peach, plum and pear.

The yield of fruit was 43.6 per centum greater in 1909 than in 1899. This high percentage of increase has been brought about in several ways. The recent development of rapid transportation, refrigerator service and of marketing facilities has greatly stimulated the culture of this as of all other fruits in the United States. An increased demand for canned and preserved cherries has sprung up so that cherries are much more used now than formerly, the trade in preserved cherries for confections and various drinks in particular having greatly increased. Lastly, better care of orchards and better means of combating insects and fungi have increased the yields during the last decade.

Cherries are grown in greater or less quantities in every state in the Union but commercially the industry is confined to a few states having especial advantages in climate, soil and markets. In but six states, according to the last census, was the value of the cherry crop more than a half-million dollars, the states being: California $951,654, Pennsylvania $909,975, Ohio $657,406, Michigan $590,829, New York $544,508, Indiana $508,516. In New York in particular, recent plantings of this fruit have been so great that at this writing, July, 1914, the figures given for this State could be increased by a quarter at the very least, and no doubt they could be largely increased also for California and Michigan. The great growth of the canning industry is most largely responsible for the large plantings of cherries in recent years in regions especially suited to this fruit.

In the several states named, the cherry industry is further localized. Thus, in the 61 counties in New York, the cherry is grown largely in but 12, the number of trees in each of these being: Columbia 78,526, Niagara 61,786, Monroe 49,831, Ontario 36,394, Wayne 35,385, Erie 29,483, Onondaga 25,932, Seneca 27,063, Chautauqua 24,483, Steuben 15,412, Orleans 14,682 and Cayuga 14,319. If the figures just given, the total number being 413,296, are compared with the number of trees in the State, 674,000, it will be seen that the industry is quite localized, two-thirds of the cherries being grown in 12 of the 61 counties, though the fact is brought out in the census that cherries are grown on 59,408 farms in New York, showing that this fruit is much grown for home use. Further figures of interest as regards New York are that the cherry crop in 1909 amounted to 271,597 bushels which sold for $544,508. The plantings in the State cover in the neighborhood of 9,500 acres.

A canvass of the leading cherry-growers and nurserymen in the United States shows that, in all parts of the country excepting California, Oregon and Washington, Sour Cherries are much more commonly grown than Sweet Cherries. In New York at least 90 per cent of the cherry trees are of sour varieties and this proportion will hold for the region east of the Rockies. The leading commercial varieties of Sour Cherries, in order named, are Montmorency, Early Richmond and English Morello. No other variety is nearly as commonly grown as is even the least well known of these three. No one of the Duke cherries is mentioned as of commercial importance, but May Duke, Late Duke and Reine Hortense are frequently grown in home plantations.

Growers of Sweet Cherries are not nearly as closely in accord as to the best varieties as are those who grow sour sorts. The most popular Sweet Cherries in the East seem to be Windsor, Black Tartarian, Napoleon and Wood with a very insistent statement of the few who have tried it that Schmidt is better than any of these for the market. On the Pacific Coast honors go to Napoleon, which the Westerners continue to call Royal Ann despite the fact that it has been cultivated for three centuries and had been called Napoleon for nearly a half-century before Lewelling took it to Oregon in 1847. Other popular sorts on the Pacific seaboard are Bing, Lambert and Republican--all western productions.

Rather more important than the information obtained from growers of cherry trees as to varieties was that as to the stocks on which cherries are grown in America. This brings us to a discussion of the whole subject of stocks for cherries.

STOCKS FOR CHERRIES

Cherries have been grown in America for over 200 years and for 50 years the crop has been important commercially. Yet despite the extent and the importance of the industry and the years it has been in existence, curiously enough so fundamental a question as the best stock upon which to grow cherries has not yet been settled; indeed, though cherries behave markedly different on the several stocks, interest as to which is the best seems but recently to have been aroused. Now there is a rather warm controversy as to which is the better of the two leading stocks, the Mazzard or the Mahaleb.

Fruit-growers on one side hold that the Mazzard is the best stock for all orchard varieties of this fruit while nurserymen controvert this view and say that the Mahaleb is at least a fit stock for sweet sorts and is the best one for Sour Cherries, and, moreover, that it is now impossible to grow cherries on Mazzard roots at prices that fruit-growers are willing to pay. Since no systematic attempts seem to have been made to determine the peculiarities and values of these two and other cherry stocks both sides dispute without many facts. Meanwhile, a fine crop of misunderstandings has grown up about the whole matter of cherry stocks. It is worth while to attempt to clear up some of the misunderstandings. The first step toward this end is to describe and give the botanical and horticultural relationships of the Mazzard and Mahaleb cherries to orchard cherries.

The Mazzard, as we have seen, is a common name, of uncertain origin, of the wild Sweet Cherry, _Prunus avium_, from which has come all cultivated Sweet Cherries. It is important to recall that the trees of the Mazzard reach a height of thirty or forty feet and the trunk often attains a diameter of eighteen or twenty inches. Other characters to be kept in mind are that the Mazzard lacks hardiness to cold but grows vigorously and is usually healthy, though susceptible to several fungi, one of which, the shot-hole fungus, _Cylindrosporium padi_, makes it a most difficult plant to grow in the nursery. Trees and fruit coming from the Mazzard used as a stock are very uniform, a fact easy to ascertain in New York where this stock has been largely used for nearly a century. The Mazzard is almost always grown from seed for stocks though suckers are occasionally used--a poor practice.

The Mazzard, or at least the Sweet Cherry, has probably been more or less used as a stock since the earliest cultivation of this fruit. The Greeks and Romans practiced budding and grafting centuries before Christ's time and when the cherry came to them as a domesticated fruit, at least three or four centuries before Christ, they undoubtedly made use of budding and grafting[40] to maintain varieties and in the case of the Sour Cherry, if they had it, and they probably did, to avoid the suckers that spring from the roots of the trees. The literature of fruit-growing is scant and fragmentary during the Middle Ages but beginning with the herbals in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries there are many treatises on fruits and botany and in several of these the use of the wild Sweet Cherry, the Mazzard, is mentioned.[41]

In America the Mazzard as a stock probably came into use soon after the establishment of Prince's nursery at Flushing, Long Island, about 1730, budding and grafting seeming to have been little practiced in the New World before the founding of this nursery.[42] The use of the Mazzard as a stock is mentioned probably for the first in Coxe's _Fruit Trees_,[43] the second American treatise on fruits, published in 1817, and again in Thacher's _American Orchardist_, published in 1822.[44] Both authors, as the foot-notes show, speak of the use of this stock as if it were in common use in American nurseries. Neither mentions the Mahaleb.

The Mahaleb, _Prunus mahaleb_, it will be remembered from the description previously given, is a bush or bush-like cherry, sometimes but not often attaining the height and port of a tree. The top is thick, with rather slender ramifying branches bearing small, green, smooth, glossy leaves, which resemble those of the apricot more than they do the leaves of either species of orchard cherries. The fruits are at first green, then yellowish, turning to red and at full maturity are shining, black and so hard, bitter and astringent as to be scarcely edible. This brief description of _Prunus mahaleb_ shows that it is quite distinct from either our commonly cultivated Sweet Cherry, _Prunus avium_, or the Sour Cherry, _Prunus cerasus_, differing from either much more than the two edible species differ from each other. It is quite as far removed from the Sweet or the Sour Cherry botanically as the apple is from the pear, the quince, or the thorn and if anything more distantly related than orchard cherries are to plums. One would expect the wood structure of the Mahaleb to differ from that of Sweet or Sour Cherries very materially and that even if the union proved in budding or grafting wholly normal that there would be some difficulty in the proper passage of nutritive solutions between stock and cion. This cherry, as we have seen, is propagated almost entirely from seed though it may easily be grown from layers, cuttings and suckers. The American supply of Mahaleb stock comes from France.

The Mahaleb seems to have come into use as a stock for other cherries in France having been first mentioned for this purpose by Duhamel du Monceau in his _Traite des Arbres Fruitiers_ in 1768.[45]

Miller in his _Gardener's Dictionary_, 1754, describes the Mahaleb cherry and says it was "Cultivated in 1714 by the Duchess of Beaufort." This seems to be the first mention of its culture in England though Gerarde in _The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes_ describes it. Neither mentions its use as a stock. In fact, it seems not to have been mentioned as a stock in England until 1824 when Loudon in the _Encyclopedia of Gardening_ speaks of it as "the most effectual dwarfing stock."[46]

It was not until after the middle of the Nineteenth Century that the Mahaleb came into use in America, none of the horticultural writers in the first half of the last century, as Cobbett, 1803; McMahon, 1806; Coxe, 1817; Thacher, 1822; Prince, 1828; Kenrick, 1833; Manning, 1838; Thomas, 1846; Floy, 1846, nor Cole, 1849, having mentioned the Mahaleb though nearly all speak of the Mazzard as the stock upon which cherries are budded. Downing, in 1845, makes first mention of the Mahaleb as a stock in the New World;[47] Thomas in his second edition, 1851, recommends it as a stock to dwarf cherries;[48] Barry, 1852, says that Mahaleb stock is imported from Europe;[49] while Elliott, in 1854, also speaks of it as a dwarfing stock.[50] From this date on the Mahaleb is mentioned in all American works on pomology in which stocks for cherries are discussed.

Pains have been taken to show the exact date the Mahaleb began to be used as a stock in America. The quotations show that this was about 1850. They show, too, that at first and for a long time its only use was as a dwarfing stock. But now the Mahaleb has almost wholly superseded the Mazzard as a stock for all Sweet and Sour Cherries. Not many cherries were propagated on the new stock until after 1860 when its use, if we may judge from the accounts of fruit-growing, began to be general and it grew so rapidly in favor that by 1880 it was more popular than the Mazzard and in another decade had almost wholly taken the place of the latter. Probably 95 per centum of the cherries grown in this country are budded on the Mahaleb. Why has the Mahaleb supplanted the Mazzard? This is the question that immediately comes to mind and to the discussion of which we proceed.

There is no question but that it is much easier to grow cherry trees on Mahaleb stock in the nursery than on Mazzard and that usually a better looking tree can be delivered to the fruit-grower on the first-named stock. Seedlings of both stocks are imported from Europe and those of the Mahaleb are usually cheaper. These reasons are sufficient for the exclusive use of Mahaleb by nurserymen, and, were it certain that the Mahaleb is the best stock for the fruit-grower, all hands might forthwith renounce the Mazzard. In what respects is it easier to grow cherries on the Mahaleb in the nursery than on the Mazzard?

All know that the Sweet Cherry is a little difficult to grow--is capricious as to soils, climates, cultivation and pruning, and as to diseases and insects. The Mazzard now used for stocks has the faults of the species to which it belongs. The Mahaleb, on the other hand, is adapted to a greater diversity of soils; is hardier to either heat or cold; less particular about cultivation; will stand more cutting in the nursery if pruning be necessary; is less susceptible to aphids which in many parts of the United States trouble cherries in the nursery row; and, more to the point than all else, in New York at least, is not nearly as badly infested with the shot-hole fungus, _Cylindrosporium padi_, which often ruins plantations of Mazzard stock. Mahaleb stock, too, is more easily "worked" than the Mazzard both in the actual work of budding and in having a longer season for this nursery operation. Cherries on Mahaleb ripen their wood earlier than those on Mazzard and may thus be dug earlier in the fall.

Nurserymen and fruit-growers alike agree to this statement of the superior merits of the Mahaleb as a nursery plant. The facts set forth are matters of common observation--so well known that it is not necessary to verify them experimentally. A half-century of experience in America on many soils, in many climates and under widely varied conditions has demonstrated that it is easier to grow cherries in the nursery on the Mahaleb than on the Mazzard stock.

From experience in the orchard, fruit-growers have established several facts as to the relative value of Mazzard and Mahaleb stocks from their standpoint. These are:

1. Cherries on Mahaleb are hardier to cold than those on Mazzard stocks. This hardiness is due, in part at least, to the fact that cherry wood on Mahaleb ripens sooner than on Mazzard. This superior hardiness of the Mahaleb is evident in the nursery-row as well as in the orchard and is a matter of great importance in northern nursery regions. In this connection it should be said that the Mahaleb is not as hardy as might be wished and that there are, as we shall later show, still hardier stocks.

2. There is no question but that the Mahaleb is a dwarfing stock. It came into use and in Europe continues to serve almost the sole purpose of dwarfing varieties worked upon it. This retarding effect is not fully realized by American cherry-growers because for the first few years the diminution in size is not apparent and even at the close of a decade the difference in size is not as marked as it would be between standard and dwarf apples or pears of the same age.

3. Cherry-growers who have tried both stocks agree that most varieties come in bearing earlier on Mahaleb than on Mazzard stocks. From the known effects of dwarfing on other fruit trees this would be expected.

4. The size of the cherries is the same on trees grown on the two stocks. The claim is made that apples and pears are a little larger on dwarf trees and that when peaches and plums are dwarfed the fruit is smaller. No one seems to have seen or to have thought that there are differences in the size of cherries grown on Mazzard or Mahaleb stock.

5. Better unions are made with Mazzard than with the Mahaleb. This would be expected because of the close relationship of the Mazzard to orchard cherries.

6. The Mahaleb is probably the more cosmopolitan stock--will thrive on a greater diversity of soils than the Mazzard stock. In particular it is somewhat better adapted to sandy, light, stony, and arid soils that are not well adapted to growing cherries. Its root system is much nearer the surface of the ground and it is, therefore, better adapted to shallow soils than the Mazzard.

7. Though the evidence is somewhat conflicting on this point it is probable that cherries on Mazzard live longer than on Mahaleb. It may be that the frequent statements to this effect arise from the knowledge that dwarf fruit-trees are generally shorter lived than standard trees since there seem to be no records of actual comparisons.

8. Lastly, in climates where the cherry can be grown with reasonable certainty and in soils to which this fruit is adapted, varieties on Mazzard are more productive and profitable than on the Mahaleb stock. This seems to be the concensus of opinion among growers in the great cherry regions of California, Oregon, Washington, Michigan and New York.

Several other stocks have been more or less successfully used for cherries and a great number have never been tried that might make good stocks. In a country as diversified as ours and in a state as variable in soil and climate as New York and with the manifold varieties of Sweet and Sour Cherries, it is almost certain that under some conditions there are stocks more desirable than either Mazzard or Mahaleb. The resources of the cherry-grower in this direction are so great that in this account we can but briefly outline them, describing but a few of the many stocks that might be used.

In the colder parts of New York and of the United States, undoubtedly seedlings of Russian cherries would make hardy and in most other respects very desirable stocks. These Russian cherries, too, as a rule, come nearly or quite true to seed, making very good orchard plants on their own roots. Some of them, if not most of them, sprout rather badly--not so serious a fault as one might think, especially in a cultivated orchard. For budding over to other varieties only sour sorts should be used, taking for trial such varieties as Bessarabian, Brusseler Braune, Double Natte, George Glass, Lutovka, Early Morello, Ostheim and Vladimir. Probably most of these would dwarf standard varieties more or less but in no case is it to be supposed that they would have the dwarfing effect of Mahaleb. In the North Mississippi Valley some of these, especially of the Ostheim or Morello type, have been very successfully used as stocks.

The small, wild, red cherry locally known as the Bird, Pin and as the Pigeon Cherry, _Prunus pennsylvanica_, found from the Atlantic to the eastern slopes of the Coast Range on the Pacific in northern United States and southern Canada, is often used as a hardy stock. The writer has seen it so used in northern Michigan but from his observation can recommend it only for cold regions and as a makeshift since it dwarfs standard varieties and usually suckers badly. W. T. Macoun, Ottawa, Canada, Dominion Horticulturist, states that this stock is commonly used in the colder parts of Canada and with good results. This cherry is not as distantly related to orchard varieties as the Mahaleb and unites with Sour Cherries at least as readily as does the Mahaleb.

In the West and Northwest the Sand Cherry, _Prunus pumila_, is used very successfully in cold, dry regions as a stock for Sour Cherries. The following is a very good account of its behavior from the pen of the late Professor J. L. Budd, a pioneer cherry grower in the Middle West.[51]

"Those who have seen acres of the Sandy Cherry in the northwest
loaded with fruit have not been ready to believe it a good stock
for the cherry on account of its sprawling bushy habits of growth.
But those who have watched its growth when young under culture on
rich soil can comprehend the fact that it is as easy to work as
the Mahaleb. As with the Mahaleb the seedlings grown in seed bed
will be large enough to set in nursery row the next spring, and
of good size for August budding. To illustrate its rapidity and
uprightness of growth I will state that we rooted a few cuttings
in plant house last winter. When set in nursery they had made a
show of growth of from two to four inches, yet at budding time,
the middle of August, they were fully as large, stocky and upright
as the Mahalebs, and in all respects in as perfect condition for
budding.

"This hardiest of all cherries is very closely related to our
garden cherries, so nearly indeed that our botanists long ago
decided that valuable crosses on it might be made.

"As yet its use for stocks is somewhat experimental, but we
can say positively that it united well with our hardy sorts in
budding, and it does not dwarf the sorts worked upon it to a
greater extent during the first five years of growth than does the
Mahaleb."

There are records of the Choke Cherry, _Prunus virginiana_,[52] and of the Rum, or wild Black Cherry, _Prunus serotina_, having been used as stocks but these long-bunch, or racemose, cherries are so distantly related to the short-bunch, or fascicled, orchard cherries that it would seem that their use would be desirable only under great stress.

In Japan a horticultural variety of _Prunus pseudocerasus_ is used as a stock. Of this cherry for this purpose, Professor Yugo Hoshino of the Tohoku Imperial University at Sapporo, Japan, writes as follows:

"You wish to know about the cherry stocks used in this country. It
is very rare to use our common wild cherry as a stock for European
cherries. In Hokkaido (Yozo Island), we commonly use the seedlings
of European Sweet and Sour Cherries as stocks. But in the northern
part of Japan proper (Main Island), it is a common practice to
graft European cherries on a special kind of our cherry. This
cherry has particular characters which fit it for propagation;
namely, it roots very easily either from cuttings or by layering
(mound). Its botanical position is not certain, but it is probable
that it is a cultural variety of Pseudocerasus, especially bred
for stock purposes. It is grown by nurserymen only and called
Dai-Sakura. (_Dai_ means stock: _Sakura_ means cherry.) It has a
somewhat dwarfing influence on cions and hastens their fruiting
age."

This stock ought to be tried in America if, indeed, it is not already under cultivation from introductions made by the United States Department of Agriculture.

These are but a few of many cherries that have been or might be tried as stocks for orchard varieties. There are many species of cherries more closely related to the cultivated edible sorts than the Mahaleb. Many of the cherries from Asia, not now known to growers, will eventually find their way to America; a few have already been introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture; some of them can undoubtedly be used as stocks and from them we may hope to find a better stock than either the Mazzard or Mahaleb.

Cherries are now grown almost wholly as budded trees but they can be more or less readily root-grafted, depending upon the variety. Under some circumstances it might be profitable to propagate them by grafting. Usually it is necessary to use a whole root and to graft at the crown of the stock. Budd recommends this practice for Iowa, using Mazzard stock but with the expectation that the cion will take root and eventually the tree will stand on its own roots.[53] We cannot believe, however, that grafting can ever take the place of budding as a nursery practice or that it can be profitably used except in very exceptional cases.

Buds in propagating are usually taken from nursery stock, a practice of decades, and there is no wearing out of varieties. Old varieties have lost none of the characters accredited to them a century, or several centuries, ago by pomological writers. Nor does it seem to matter, in respect to trueness to type, whether the buds be taken from a vigorous, young stripling, a mature tree in the heyday of life or some struggling, lichen-covered ancient--all alike reproduce the variety. The hypothesis that fruit-trees degenerate or, on the other hand, that they may be improved by bud-selection, finds no substantiation in this fruit. There seems to be no limit to the number of times its varieties can be propagated true to type from buds.

[40] Varro (B. C. 117-27), as we have seen on page 47, tells
when to graft cherries and discusses the process as if grafting
cherries were a common operation.

[41] In _The Country-Man's New Art of Planting and Grafting_,
written by Leonard Mascall, 1652, the writer says, "Sower Cherries
... will grow of stones, but better it shall be to take of the
small Cions which do come from the roots; then plant them.

"Ye must have respect unto the Healme Cherry, [a sweet cherry of
the time] which is graft on the wild Gomire [Mazzard] which is
another kind of great Cherry, and whether you do prune them or
not, it is not materiall; for they dure a long time."

R. A. Austen, in his _Treatise of Fruit Trees_, 1653, writes,
"Concerning Stocks fit for Cherry-trees, I account the black
Cherry stock (Mazzard) the best to graft any kind of Cherry upon.
Yet some say the red Cherry stock is best for May-Cherries. But
the black Cherry stocks are goodly straight Plants full of sap and
become greater trees than the red Cherry trees."

John Reid, _The Scots Gard'ner_, 1683, writes, "Dwarfe Cherries
on the Morella, or on the common Red Cherrie. Or on that Red geen
which is more Dwarffish than the black."

John Lawrence, _The Clergyman's Recreation_, 1714, declared that,
"Black Cherries (Mazzard) are the only Stocks, whereon to raise
all, the several sorts of Cherries."

[42] "The practice of grafting and inoculating in America is but
of modern date. It was introduced by Mr. _Prince_, a native of
New York, who erected a Nursery in its neighborhood about forty
years ago. But since the late American revolution, others have
been instituted in this and some other parts of the United States.
Mr. _Livingston_ has lately established one, not far from the city
of New York, which can vie with some of the most celebrated ones
in Europe. May he, and others, who have undertaken in that useful
branch of business, meet with encouragement and success. Nothing
in the extensive field of Horticulture can afford more agreeable
amusement or yield more solid satisfaction and advantage." Forsyth
on _Fruit Trees_, Albany, N. Y., =1803=:278.

[43] "The cherry is propagated by budding and ingrafting--from
its disposition to throw out gum from wounds in the vessels of
the bark, the former mode is most generally adopted. The heart
cherries do not succeed well on any but the black Mazard stocks,
but round or duke cherries do as well on Morello stocks, which are
often preferred from their being less liable to the cracks in the
bark, from frost and sun on the southwest side; this injury may
be almost effectually prevented by planting on the east side of
board fences or buildings, or by fixing an upright board on the
southwest side of each tree in open situations.

"The best stocks are raised from stones planted in the nursery.
Stocks raised from suckers of old trees, will always generate
suckers, which are injurious and very troublesome in gardens:
diseases of old or worn out varieties, are likewise perpetuated by
the use of suckers for stocks." Coxe _Fruit Trees_ =1817=:253.

[44] "The cultivated cherry, when reared from the seed, is much
disposed to deviate from the variety of the original fruit, and,
of course, they are propagated by budding or grafting on cherry
stocks: budding is most generally preferred, as the tree is less
apt to suffer from oozing of the gum than when grafted. The stocks
are obtained by planting the seeds in a nursery, and the seedlings
are afterwards transplanted. Those kinds which are called heart
cherries are said to succeed best on the black mazard stock;
but for the round kind, the Morello stocks are preferred, on
account of their being the least subject to worms, or to cracks
in the bark, from frost and heat of the sun." Thacher _American
Orchardist_ =1822=:212.

[45] "So the good species and their varieties are perpetuated and
multiplied by grafting upon the Merisier, upon the Cerisier with
round fruit, and upon the Cerisier de Sainte-Lucie [Mahaleb].
All the Cerisiers succeed well upon the Merisier and it is the
only subject which is suited to the high-headed trees. It has
the advantage of not sending forth any or very few suckers. The
Cerisier de Sainte-Lucie has the same advantage. It receives very
well the graft of all species of cherries and adapts itself to the
worst soils." Duhamel _Traite des Arbres Fruitiers_ =1=:197. 1768.

[46] "Varieties of the cherry are continued by grafting or budding
on stocks of the black or wild red cherries, which are strong
shooters, and of a longer duration than any of the garden kinds.
Some graft on the Morello for the purpose of dwarfing the tree,
and rendering it more prolific; but the most effectual dwarfing
stock is the mahaleb, which, however, will not succeed in the
generality of soils in Britain. Dubreuil of Rouen recommends the
wild cherry for clayey and light soils, and the mahaleb for soils
of a light, sandy or chalky nature. The stones of the cultivated
cherry are commonly, but improperly, substituted for those of the
wild sort, as being more easily procured." Loudon _Enc. of Gard._
=1824=:924.

[47] "When dwarf trees are required, the _Morello_ seedlings are
used as stocks; or when very dwarf trees are wished the Perfumed
Cherry, (Cerasus Mahaleb) is employed; but as standards 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." Downing _Fruit Trees of America_
=1845=:164.

[48] "The stocks used for this purpose (to dwarf cherries) are
the "Perfumed Cherry" or _Prunus Mahaleb_, which also possesses
the advantage of flourishing on heavy clay ground. The grafts
will usually grow quite vigorously for two or three seasons, but
they soon form dwarf, prolific bushes." Thomas _Am. Fruit Cult._
=1849=:351.

[49] "The principal stocks used for the cherry are the _mazzard_
for standard orchard trees, and the mahaleb for garden pyramids
and dwarfs.

"The _Mahaleb_ (Cerasus mahaleb) is a small tree with glossy, deep
green foliage. The fruit is black, about the size of a marrow-fat
pea, and quite bitter. It blossoms and bears fruit when about
three years old. It is considerably cultivated in many parts of
Europe, as an ornamental lawn tree. There are very few bearing
trees in this country yet; consequently nearly all the stocks used
are imported, or grown from imported seeds." Barry _The Fruit
Garden_ =1851=:115, 117.

[50] "_Dwarf Trees._--Are produced by propagating the Sweet or
Duke varieties on the Mahaleb, or Morello roots. They should in
all cases be worked just at the crown of the root, as it is there
a union is best formed; and also, by means of pruning, (see page
30) they should be made to form heads branching immediately from
the ground." Elliott _Fr. Book_ =1854=:185.

[51] _Iowa Sta. Bul._ =10=:425. 1890.

[52] _Prunus virginiana_ was used as a stock in Oregon in 1850 as
there were no other stocks available. The union was very good but
the stock was condemned because of suckering. Seth Lewelling _N.
W. Horticulturist_ Nov. 1887.

[53] "I will here say that one year with another we succeed as
well in grafting on Mazzard roots as we do with pear on pear
roots, and nearly as well as with apple on apple roots. In some
cases since the appearance of the graft-box fungus our success
has been more complete with the cherry than with the apple. This
success is due to careful compliance with two main guiding rules,
founded on the nature of cherry wood: (1) Keep the scions dry
until used. If given an opportunity they will absorb water enough
to start the buds and form a callus at the base. In this condition
they will fail to unite with the root. (2) After grafting, pack in
boxes with sand or moss and store in a root cave, kept uniformly
cool by opening at night and keeping closed during the day. If
the buds start prior to the time of planting in nursery they will
usually fail to grow. It may prove useful to add, that the sprouts
from deeply set trees on Mazzard root will always be true to the
varieties planted, and the surface roots can be utilized for root
cuttings, as noted on a future page." _Ia. Sta. Bul._ =10=:424.
1890.

CHERRY CLIMATES AND CHERRY SOILS

Climate and soil have been the chief determinants of location for cherry-growing in New York. Both Sweet Cherries and Sour Cherries are profoundly influenced by the natural environment in which they are grown--Sweet Cherries rather more so than any other fruit, either climate or soil dictating whether they may or may not be grown.

The Sour Cherry is at home in a great variety of climates, the vagaries of weather affecting it but little. It is probably the hardiest to cold, in some of its varieties at least, of all our tree fruits, thriving almost to the Arctic Circle and from there southward, in some of its forms, quite to the limits of the Temperate Zone. The blossoming season is relatively late so that fruit-setting is seldom prevented by spring frosts. Yet, even with this hardy fruit, it is necessary to take thought of heat and cold in growing commercial crops; for spring frosts may wither the bloom or summer heat and wind blast the crop if the orchard site be not well selected as regards local weather.

The Sweet Cherry, on the other hand, must be coddled in every turn of the season, in climatic requirements being particularly sensitive to heat and cold. This cherry stands with the peach in not being able to survive temperatures much below zero and in suffering greatly from spring frosts because of early blooming. It is even more susceptible to heat than the peach, and especially cannot endure long-continued heat, both fruit and foliage suffering. The Sweet Cherry is at its best in a warm, sunny, genial, equable climate. The Duke cherries, hybrids between the Sweet and the Sour species, in the matter of hardiness are midway between the hardy Sours and the tender Sweets though this is but a very general statement applying to the group as a whole and not to individual varieties. Some of these withstand cold and heat well while others are tender in either extreme.

Cherries are more at the mercy of moisture than of temperature conditions. Continued rain at blossoming time will almost surely prevent a proper setting of fruit; and the cherries crack, and brown-rot becomes exceedingly aggressive if there is wet weather in harvest time. Late summer rainfall to supply moisture to the trees is a matter of small concern to the cherry-grower, for growth begins early and the crop is off the trees before summer droughts usually begin. Where irrigation is practiced water for the cherry is safely supplied at most seasons of the year except when harvest is in swing at which time the cherries will swell and crack if there be too much water.

As with all fruits the direction, temperature and humidity of winds are factors which decree whether or not cherries can be grown profitably either in a locality or a region. A pocket in the hills filled with dead air or a wind-swept highland would be unsatisfactory extremes; for, in the first case, fungi, especially the dreaded brown-rot, would take too great toll, and, in the second, blossoms would be blasted or foliage frazzled and the fruit whipped. The harsh, drying winds of winter, too, would be disastrous to Sweet Cherry culture and if extreme, as on the Great Plains, wood and buds of Sour Cherries would suffer. Artificial wind-breaks have not been found profitable in the hilly and wooded East, entailing too many disadvantages, but if cherries be planted at all in the prairies of the Middle West, some protection from the winds must usually be provided.

The two species from which cultivated cherries come grow with proper vigor in quite different soils. The Sour Cherry and most of its hybrid offspring, the Dukes, may be made to grow in almost any arable soil, but the Sweet Cherry is fastidious--to be pleased only by particular soils.

Sour Cherry orchards in New York most excel on strong, even-tempered, loamy soils, naturally or artificially well drained yet retentive of moisture. There is possibly a shade of difference in favor of clay loams and some thriving plantations may be found on stiff clays having good depth and good drainage. Wet, sticky clays underlaid with a cold, clammy subsoil--a combination all too common in Central New York--furnish conditions which defy the best of care and culture.

Sweet Cherry orchards are found excelling on lighter, and less fertile soils than those we have described for the grosser feeding Sours. Growers of Sweet Cherries conceive a perfect soil for this fruit to be a naturally dry, warm, deep, free-working, gravelly or sandy loam. If the soil is not naturally dry, it must be made so by artificial drainage, for this fruit is most impatient of too much moisture or a root-run restricted by water. In Sweet Cherry soils, as will be surmised, it is difficult to supply humus yet this must be done either by cover crops or by manure to make the soil sufficiently retentive of moisture. Sweet Cherries can be grown on other soils than those under discussion but, for a large, firm, finely finished product for the markets, only the soils described are suitable.

The conditions of soil and climate, as we have briefly defined them, that favor cherry culture are to be found in several parts of New York. Briefly we may name and describe the cherry regions of the State as follows:

The undulating, maritime plains of Long Island, covered with a thick deposit of sand, are very well adapted to cherries where the soil is rich enough to come under the plow. The genial climate, with its rather heavy rainfall, is precisely that in which the cherry thrives, the region falling short in the poorness of the soil--a fault easily remedied, where there is good bottom, by manuring. Despite the fact that occasional trees and plantations show that this fruit thrives on Long Island the cherry is not much grown here, the industry needing some leader to show the way.

The valley of the Hudson from where the river leaves the mountains on the north to its entrance into the highlands of its lower stretch is admirably adapted to cherry-growing, both climate and soil meeting the requirements of this fruit. In parts of the valley the industry has been developed, Columbia County taking first place among the counties of the State, with its 78,526 trees in 1909. The product of this region goes chiefly to the great city market near at hand. Unfortunately the standard of cultivation is low in the Hudson Valley and the handling and marketing of the crop is also on a lower level than westward in the State. The cherry harvest is earlier here than elsewhere in New York, if we except the small crop of Long Island, an advantage, for prices usually fall rather than stiffen as the season advances.

The great basin in which lie the Central Lakes of New York is far famed for its Sour Cherry industry, the product going largely to canneries. Some Sweet Cherries are grown--more and more are being planted--about these lakes; but the rich, heavy soils which mostly prevail hereabouts are more fit for varieties of the Sour Cherry; though the equable climate makes almost certain the Sweet Cherry crop on soils suited to its culture. Here, as elsewhere in the State, the acreage at this writing is greatly on the increase though it is doubtful if the advance will much longer weather the present depression in prices. All through this region, as in that to the north, the Sweet Cherry grows wild, thriving like the Biblical bay--seemingly a sheer gift of the soil and, like other gifts, generally neglected.

The high plain along the shore of Lake Ontario from the St. Lawrence River to the Niagara River, extending from the lake on the north from ten to fifteen miles inland, is the region of greatest possibilities for the cherry in New York. The climate of this great stretch of territory is nearly perfect for this fruit and the soils are sufficiently diversified to furnish a suitable habitat for any of the many varieties of either Sweet or Sour cherries. In the past there have been so many ups and downs in the cherry industry that fruit-growers in this favored belt have given more attention to other fruits but for the last decade, until the recent downward turn in the cherry market, the plantings have been greatly increased, both Sweet and Sour cherries finding favor.

Not unlike the Ontario shore in climate, but quite unlike it in its soils, is the shore of Lake Erie, the most westward topographical division of New York in which cherries are grown. The mainstay of this region is the grape, but, in seeking for a more diversified agriculture, Sour Cherry culture was introduced some twenty years ago and has become a thriving industry with prospects of continued growth. Here, as is so often the case in agriculture, credit must be given to some one leader for the development of a crop and the cherry orchards that dot the landscape for miles about the home of the late John Spencer speak eloquently of his leadership in this region.

A necessary accompaniment to a discussion of climate is a statement of the dates of blooming of the various sorts of cherries; for often, through selection with reference to this life event of the plant, injurious climatal influences may be escaped at blooming-time. In the accompanying table averages of the blooming dates of varieties of cherries for the years just past, 1912 to 1914, are given.

In making use of these dates, consideration must be given to the environment of the orchards at Geneva. The latitude of the Smith Astronomical Observatory, a quarter of a mile from the Station orchards, is 42° 52' 46.2"; the altitude of the orchards is from five hundred to five hundred and twenty-five feet above the sea level. The soil is a stiff and rather cold clay; the orchards lie about a mile west of Seneca Lake, a body of water forty miles in length and from one to three and one-half miles in width and more than six hundred feet deep. The lake has frozen over but a few times since the region was settled, over a hundred years ago, and has a very beneficial influence on the adjacent country in lessening the cold of winter and the heat of summer and in preventing early blooming.

The dates are those of full bloom. They were taken from trees grown under normal conditions as to pruning, distance apart, and as to all other factors which might influence the blooming period. An inspection of the table shows that there is a variation of several days between the time of full bloom of the different varieties of the same species. These differences can be utilized in selecting sorts to avoid injury from frost.

TABLE SHOWING BLOOMING DATES AND SEASON OF RIPENING

------------------+--------------------------------------+-----------------
| Blooming date | Season of
+--------------------------------------+ ripening
| May |
+--------------------------------------+-----+------+----
| | |Mid- |
|4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18|Early|season|Late
------------------+--------------------------------------+-----+------+----
_P. avium_ | | | |
Bing | * | | * |
Black Tartarian | * | | * |
California | | | |
Advance | * | * | |
Centennial | * | | | *
Cleveland | * | | * |
Coe | * | * | |
Dikeman | * | | | *
Downer | * | | * |
Eagle | * | | * |
Early Purple |* | * | |
Elkhorn | * | | * |
Elton | * | | * |
Florence | * | * | |
_P. avium_ | | | |
Ida | * | * | |
Kirtland | * | | * |
Knight | * | * | |
Lamaurie | * | * | |
Lambert | * | | * |
Lyons | * | | * |
Mercer | * | | * |
Mezel | * | | * |
Napoleon | * | | | *
Republican | * | | | *
Rockport | * | | * |
Schmidt | * | | * |
Sparhawk | * | | * |
Stuart | * | | | *
Windsor | * | | | *
Wood | * | * | |
Yellow Spanish | * | | | *
| | | |
_P. cerasus_ | | | |
Bourgueil | * | | | *
Brusseler Braune | * | | | *
Carnation | * | | * |
Dyehouse | * | | * |
Early Morello | * | | * |
Early Richmond | * | | * |
English Morello | * | | | *
George Glass | * | | * |
Heart-Shaped | | | |
Weichsel | * | | * |
King Amarelle | * | | * |
Large Montmorency| * | | * |
Louis Philippe | * | | * |
Magnifique | *| | | *
Montmorency | * | | * |
Olivet | * | | * |
Ostheim | * | | | *
Sklanka | * | | * |
Späte Amarelle | * | | | *
Suda | * | | | *
Timme | * | | * |
Vladimir | * | | | *
| | | |
_P. avium_ × | | | |
_P. cerasus_ | | | |
Abbesse d'Oignies| * | | * |
Double Natte | * | | * |
Empress Eugenie | * | | * |
Late Duke | * | | | *
May Duke | * | | * |
Nouvelle Royale | * | | * |
Reine Hortense | * | | * |
Royal Duke | * | | * |
------------------+--------------------------------------+-----+------+----

THE POLLINATION OF CHERRIES

We cannot complain in New York of much uncertainty in the setting of the cherry crop. Late spring frosts occasionally catch the blossoms of Sweet varieties but seldom those of the Sour sorts. Cold weather, especially if accompanied by wet weather, not unfrequently cuts short the cherry crop by preventing proper setting. There is, however, no general complaint of poor crops through self-sterility. In fact from the behavior of perfectly isolated trees in all parts of the State it would be premised that the cherry is most nearly self-fertile of all tree-fruits.

Yet there may be orchards or seasons in which cross-pollination cuts a figure, for Gardner[54], of the Oregon Station, found in experiments carried on by him in various parts of Oregon that many varieties of Sweet Cherries in the Pacific Coast environment are self-sterile. The work seems to have been very carefully done and the conclusions are worth reprinting in full, bearing in mind that they would be much modified under New York conditions. Gardener found:

"1. All the varieties of the Sweet Cherry tested are self-sterile.
This self-sterility is in no case due to a lack of germinability
of the pollen produced. On the other hand, the pollen of each
of the varieties studied is capable of producing a set of fruit
on the variety or varieties with which it is inter-fertile. The
list includes Bing, Black Republican, Black Tartarian, Coe, Early
Purple, Elton, Knight, Lambert, Major Francis, May Duke, Napoleon,
Rockport, Waterhouse, Willamette, Windsor, Wood.

"2. Certain of these varieties--Bing, Lambert, and Napoleon are
mentioned especially--are inter-sterile. Mixed plantings of
these three varieties cannot be expected to set fruit unless the
trees are within the range of influence of some other variety or
varieties that are inter-fertile with them.

"3. Among those studied, Black Republican, Black Tartarian, and
Waterhouse seem to be the most efficient pollenizers for this
group of varieties.

"4. Other good pollenizers that may be mentioned are: Elton, Wood,
Coe, Major Francis, Early Purple. These, however, proved somewhat
variable in their pollenizing abilities.

"5. _Some_ of the seedling trees found in and about cherry
orchards are efficient pollenizers for the three varieties--Bing,
Lambert, Napoleon. Probably _many_ of these seedling trees are
efficient pollenizers, though the value of any particular seedling
can be determined only by experiment or very careful observation.

"6. At least some members of the Duke group of cherries are
capable of pollinating some of the Bigarreaus.

"7. At least some of the varieties of the Sour Cherry (P. cerasus)
are capable of pollinating some of the Bigarreaus.

"8. Inter-sterility of Sweet Cherry varieties is apparently not
correlated with their closeness of relationship.

"9. The ability of a variety of cherry to set fruit is
not entirely dependent upon the kind of pollen available.
Environmental factors are important."

It is doubtful if New York cherry-growers will need to pay much attention to cross-pollination but, in case cherry trees are not setting full crops, and for no other apparent reason, the fertility of the blossoms may well receive attention. Should varieties be found self-sterile, sorts must be chosen which come into blossom at the same time, in which case the preceding table shows the sorts which bloom together or nearly enough so to make cross-pollination possible.

[54] Gardner, V. R. Pollination of the Sweet Cherry, _Ore. Sta.
Bul_. =116=:36. 1913

CHERRY ORCHARDS AND THEIR CARE

It is patent to the eye of every passer-by that cherry trees are commonly set too thickly in most of the orchards in New York. While close planting is a universal fault, the amount of room differs greatly in different cherry centers, depending mostly upon the custom in the community, though, as all confess, it should depend upon the variety and the soil. The very erroneous notion seems to have prevailed in setting the plantations now reaching maturity that a large return could be skimmed from a small area by close setting, Sour Cherries often being put only twelve feet apart each way and Sweet Cherries, considering their great size, even closer, at sixteen feet. Experienced growers now put such dwarf kinds as the Morellos at from sixteen to eighteen, the Montmorencies and their kind at eighteen to twenty-two; and the large growing Sweet Cherries at from twenty-four to thirty feet.

Cherries are usually planted two years from the bud. Spring is the season for setting, though the hardy Sour sorts might often be set advantageously in late autumn. The losses at setting time are greater with the cherry than with any other fruit, old hands in fruit-growing losing trees as well as beginners. An experiment at the Station shows that these losses are greatly mitigated by a change in the usual method of transplanting. The custom is to shorten-in all branches of transplanted fruit-trees but this, with the cherry in particular, removes the largest and presumably the best nourished buds--certainly those from which would soonest develop the leaves so necessary to sustain the breath of life in the young plant and to give it a start. In the experiment at this Station it was found that, if the top of the young tree was reduced by thinning the branches instead of cutting all back, a much larger proportion of the trees would strike root and live through our parching summers.