U. P. Hedrick

“ Both the ornamental and the edible cherries are very beautiful in spring when abundantly covered with flowers, which usually open with the unfolding leaves, as well as throughout the summer when overspread with lustrous green foliage and most of them are quite as conspicuously beautiful in the autumn 7 when the leaves turn from green to light and dark tints of red. All will agree that a cherry tree in full fruit is a most beautiful object. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What fruit better adapted to the uses of colonists than the cherry? It possesses in a high degree, especially the Sour Cherry, the power of adaptation to new environment and thrives under a greater variety of conditions than any other of our fruits unless it be the apple, which it at least equals in this respect. The cherry is easily propagated; it comes in bearing early and bears regularly; of all fruits it requires least care—gives the greatest returns under neglect ”

“ May Duke fills a particular place in the cherry orchard as a fruit for the local market and hundreds of new-comers have not been able to supplant it. The fact that it has lost none of its pristine vigor, health and productiveness in the two hundred and more years it has been known contradicts the idea that varieties of fruit degenerate or wear out with age. When we pass in review all of the varieties of cherries, all characters and purposes considered, May Duke remains one of the best. ”

“ For, as one sorts the accumulated stores of botanical and historical evidence, it becomes quickly apparent that both the Sweet and the Sour Cherry now grow wild and long have done so in the region named and that, from the time tillage of plants was first practiced in the Old World, this fruit has been under cultivation, feeble, obscure, and interrupted by war and chase though its cultivation may have been. ”

“ The plum and the peach surpass the cherry in diversity of flavor, aroma, texture, color, form and size, characters which make fruits pleasant to the palate and beautiful to the eye; but the cherry, perhaps, plays a more important part than the plum or the peach in domestic economy. It has fewer prejudices as to soil and climate, hence is much more widely distributed and is more easily grown, being better represented in the orchards and gardens in the regions where the three fruits grow. ”

“ Our knowledge of how wild cherries have been remodeled into the orchard and garden varieties of today—of what the methods and processes of domestication have been—is, therefore, doubtful and limited, for the mind and hand of man had been deeply impressed upon the cherry long before the faint traditions which have been transmitted to our day could possibly have arisen. ”

“ As the only cultivated representative of the European Dwarf Cherry, Early May should be of especial interest to cherry-growers. It is a true dwarf variety, the trees seldom attaining a height of more than six or seven feet. Both tree and branches are very flexible so that Early May is well adapted to the wall-training of European countries. It has further value in its earliness, being the earliest of all cherries. It is doubtful whether the variety can now be obtained in America but it ought to be reintroduced both for the fruit and because it is a handsome ornamental. ”

“ English Morello is the best of all its group and is the standard late Sour Cherry in North America, occupying at the close of the season the place held by Montmorency in mid-season for home, market and cannery. It is not a table fruit and can hardly be eaten out of hand until it loses some of its astringency and acidity by thorough ripening. In any way the cherries are prepared by cooking, however, it is one of the best, culinary processes giving the fruits a rich, dark wine color, very attractive in appearance, and a most pleasant, sprightly, aromatic flavor. ”

“ Fruit matures in mid-season; over one inch in diameter, conical to long-cordate, compressed; cavity deep, wide, flaring; suture a distinct line; apex much pointed; color, varying shades of bright red over a yellowish background, distinctly mottled; dots obscure; stem slender, more than one inch long, adherent to the fruit; skin thin, rather adherent; flesh whitish, with a faint yellow tinge, with colorless juice, tender, meaty, crisp, mild, the flavor improving as the season advances, sweet; good to very good in quality ”

“ That Lucullus brought to Italy a cherry and one which the Romans did not know there is no reason to doubt, but other cherries there must have been, not only wild but cultivated, of Prunus cerasus at least and probably of Prunus avium, and in comparative abundance long before Lucullus, returning from the war in Pontus with Mithridates, brought to Rome a cherry. With this brief mention of Pliny's inaccuracy, we pass to more substantial facts in the history of the cherry. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Montmorency is the most popular Sour Cherry grown in America. No one questions its supremacy. Probably half of the cherry trees in New York, Sweet or Sour, are Montmorencies and at least three-fourths of all the trees of the Sour Cherry are of this variety. It leads in the demands for this fruit in the markets, for the cannery and for home use as a culinary cherry. Several characters give it first place. It is surpassed by no other Sour Cherry, in New York at least, in vigor, health and productiveness of tree. ”

“ Elton has been freely recommended and widely cultivated in Europe and America for the past century and probably no cherry has given more general satisfaction. The variety is distinguished by the form, color, flesh and flavor of its fruit. The cherries are oblong-heart-shaped—possibly too much drawn out for best appearance and often too oblique; the color, very well shown in the color-plate, is most attractive and makes up for any defect in shape—a dark red mottled with amber, very bright, clear and glossy; the flesh, a little too soft to ship well, is delicate and most pleasing to the palate ”

“ Montmorency is not a dessert cherry but for those who like Sour Cherries it may be eaten out of hand with relish when it is fully matured. Some maintain that the variety falls short in the size of the tree, which is seldom more than medium, but the head is spreading and much-branched and the fruit is borne in clusters thickly scattered throughout the whole head so that the total yield from a tree is greater than would be thought from its size. ”

“ At least three cultivated cherry trees produce wood of considerable value. The wood of the cherry is hard, close-grained, solid, durable, a handsome pale red, or brown tinged with red. Prunus avium, the Sweet Cherry, furnishes a wood which, if sufficient care be taken to season it, is of much value in cabinet-making and for the manufacture of musical instruments. Prunus mahaleb is a much smaller tree than the former but its wood, as much as there is of it, is even more valuable, being very hard and fragrant and dark enough in color to take on a beautiful mahogany-like polish. ”

“ Of all organs, the fruit of the cherry is most responsive to changed conditions and hence most variable, yet the fruits furnish very valuable taxonomic characters in both botany and pomology. In pomology, in particular, the fruits must be closely studied. Size, shape, color, bloom, stem, cavity, apex, suture and skin are the outward characters of which note must be made; while the color, aroma, flavor and texture of the flesh are usually very characteristic. Both species and varieties are well distinguished by the time of ripening though there is much variation in ripening dates. ”

“ Cleveland is a Bigarreau which falls so far short of its near kin, as it grows in New York at least, as not to be worth planting except as an early cherry of its type—earliness being its one saving asset. The cherries closely resemble Rockport in size, color, shape and flavor, are in no way better than that somewhat mediocre sort and are even more subject to brown-rot. It ripens with Black Tartarian and can never compete in orchard or market with that sort. ”

“ Thus, they do not come in bearing early; they are tall and upright in growth, being almost fastigiate, making it difficult to harvest the crop; and the load of fruit is too much clustered. Cherry-growers agree that the worst of all pests of this fruit is the robin and that the Windsor, for some reason or other, is the freest of its kind from this and other thieving birds. From the behavior of the variety in New York, we can heartily join with practically all who are growing this variety in recommending it as a late, market Sweet Cherry. ”

“ It is easier to define the geographic range of the wild Sweet Cherry. Botanists very generally agree that Prunus avium as a wild plant inhabits all of the mainland of Europe in which the cultivated varieties of the species can be grown—that is, most of the continent south of Sweden, and may be found wild well into southern Russia. The species is reported sparingly wild in northern Africa and is a very common wild plant in 42 southern Asia as far east as northern India. It must not be thought that the plant is everywhere abundant in the great area outlined as its habitat. ”

“ It is very hardy and is said to thrive even under neglect—standing as much abuse as a forest tree. As compared with standard commercial cherries of the East the fruit is distinctly inferior in size and quality, being hardly fit to eat out of hand, and is sour and astringent even when cooked. The trees, though hardy and healthy, are dwarfish and not productive because of the 102 smallness of the cherries. It is an early cherry but the fruit hangs long. The variety is said to root well from cuttings, which, if true, might make it worth while trying as a stock. ”

“ Early Purple is a valuable cherry on account of its earliness, its attractive color and high quality. The trees bear well and regularly after having become established in the orchard. The variety has the reputation of being a poor grower in the nursery and as a young tree in the orchard but with age it takes on vigor and at all times is as healthy as those of any Sweet Cherry. More than most cherries, this variety responds to good care and a choice cherry soil—a warm, free-working loam being best. ”

“ Cherry trees begin to bear in the climate of New York when set from three to five years. The varieties of Prunus cerasus first produce profitable crops but, at from six to eight years from setting, both Sweet and 86 Sour sorts are in full swing as money-making crops. The limits of profitable age are not set by the life of the tree but, rather, by its size. Thus, cherry trees of either of the species commonly cultivated are not infrequently centenarians but the profitable age of an orchard is not often more than from thirty to forty years. ”

“ The trees are typical Morellos, round-headed, with slender, drooping branches and branchlets and very dark green foliage. The fruit is borne toward the ends of short branches which are not well distributed over the main branches, leaving much bare wood. Like all Morellos the fruit hangs long after maturity and since the ripening season is late the variety may be worth growing because of its lateness; as it may, also, in cold climates because of great hardiness. The trees on their own roots throw up many suckers which are often used in propagation. ”

“ Unlike the rest of its class, this cherry has tender flesh but is a Bigarreau in tree-habit, leaf and in appearance of fruit, and is therefore classified as such. The variety is a seedling raised by Thomas Ingram of the Frogmore Royal Gardens at Windsor, Berkshire, England. Tree bears freely in clusters; fruit large, obtuse-cordate, slightly compressed, with a faint suture; stem long, set in a small cavity; skin waxen, orange-yellow, with a network of red and a blush of deeper red on the sunny side; flesh of a primrose color, very tender, translucent, rich, sweet ”

“ Prunus cerasus is the Sour Cherry, or Pie Cherry, of many languages—grown and esteemed in temperate climates the world over and probably the most widely distributed of all tree fruits. The species is found truly wild, as we have set forth in detail in the following chapter, in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. It is a frequent escape from cultivation, multiplying from seed distributed by birds or human agencies or growing from suckers which spring so freely from the roots as to make the species unfit for a stock in orchard work. ”

“ Cherry-picking begins in New York about the first of July, following the rush in harvesting strawberries, and lasts, if the orchard contains both Sweet and Sour varieties, from four to six weeks. Workers may in this way fill in a gap between small-fruits and other tree-fruits and the crop becomes one in which the grower may often take small profits to keep his help employed; though, in the long run, if the more or less frequent depressions can be weathered, the cherry may prove as profitable as other fruits. ”