Cherry orchard

“ Eh, musicians, play, I want to hear you! Come and look at Ermolai Lopakhin laying his axe to the cherry orchard, come and look at the trees falling! We'll build villas here, and our grandsons and great-grandsons will see a new life here. ”

“ ANYA. What have you done to me, Peter? I don't love the cherry orchard as I used to. I loved it so tenderly, I thought there was no better place in the world than our orchard.
TROFIMOV. All Russia is our orchard. The land is great and beautiful, there are many marvellous places in it. [Pause] Think, Anya, your grandfather, your great-grandfather, and all your ancestors were serf-owners, they owned living souls; and now, doesn't something human look at you from every cherry in the orchard, every leaf and every stalk? Don't you hear voices . . . ? Oh, it's awful, your orchard is terrible ”

“ The crop on a large cherry orchard in Mid Kent has been sold for more than £100 per acre.
Where old standard trees have been long neglected and have become overgrown by mosses and lichens, the attempts made to improve them seldom succeed. The introduction of bush fruit trees dwarfed by grafting on the Paradise stock has been of much advantage to fruit cultivators, as they come into bearing in two or three years, and are more easily cultivated, pruned, sprayed and picked than standards. Many plantations of these bush trees have been formed in Kent of apples, pears and plums. ”

“ PISCHIN. [Takes his arm; in an undertone] She's crying. Let's go into the drawing-room and leave her by herself . . . come on. . . . [Takes his arm and leads him out.]
LOPAKHIN. What's that? Bandsmen, play nicely! Go on, do just as I want you to! [Ironically] The new owner, the owner of the cherry orchard is coming! [He accidentally knocks up against a little table and nearly upsets the candelabra] I can pay for everything! ”

“ The cherry orchard is mine now, mine! [Roars with laughter] My God, my God, the cherry orchard's mine! Tell me I'm drunk, or mad, or dreaming. . . . [Stamps his feet] Don't laugh at me! If my father and grandfather rose from their graves and looked at the whole affair, and saw how their Ermolai, their beaten and uneducated Ermolai, who used to run barefoot in the winter, how that very Ermolai has bought an estate, which is the most beautiful thing in the world! I've bought the estate where my grandfather and my father were slaves, where they weren't even allowed into the kitchen. ”

“ I now have some ideas that may be able to correct this, and I believe my cherry orchard will yet prove a success. Man is made to overcome all obstacles.
I have been interested in the growing of many kinds of fruits. I have large pear orchards on my south Georgia plantations, Le Conte and Keifer pears. The trees have been badly blighted but have been a moderate financial success.
I now come to what I consider the most successful [66] undertaking of the latter part of my life—the growing of apples in Rabun County, Georgia.
I shall begin with a few words on apple culture in Georgia. ”

“ As you already know, your cherry orchard is to be sold to pay your debts, and the sale is fixed for August 22; but you needn't be alarmed, dear madam, you may sleep in peace; there's a way out. Here's my plan. Please attend carefully! Your estate is only thirteen miles from the town, the railway runs by, and if the cherry orchard and the land by the river are broken up into building lots and are then leased off for villas you'll get at least twenty-five thousand roubles a year profit out of it. ”

“ LOPAKHIN. Let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen, on August 22 the cherry orchard will be sold. Think of that! . . . Think of that! . . .
All go out except TROFIMOV and ANYA.
ANYA. [Laughs] Thanks to the tramp who frightened Barbara, we're alone now.
TROFIMOV. Varya's afraid we may fall in love with each other and won't get away from us for days on end. Her narrow mind won't allow her to understand that we are above love. To escape all the petty and deceptive things which prevent our being happy and free, that is the aim and meaning of our lives. Forward! ”

“ Habit of growth, unlike size, varies but little with changing conditions and thus becomes a most important means of distinguishing species and varieties and not infrequently sets the seal and sign of desirability for an orchard cherry. More than any other character, habit of growth gives what is called "aspect" to a cherry tree. Thus, a species or a variety may be upright, spreading, round-topped, drooping or weeping in habit of growth ”

“ Cultivation, as practiced by the best growers, consists of plowing the land in the spring and then frequently stirring the soil until the first of August, at which time a cover-crop is sown. If the soil is light, and therefore hungry and thirsty, the plowing should be done early and the cultivator kept constantly at work until cherry-picking. Cherry orchards often, without apparent cause, have an indefinable air of malaise—look dingy and unhappy—such require almost week-to-week cultivation to tide them over their period of indisposition. ”

“ Grain, as well as grass, is discountenanced in cherry orchards, but cultivated truck and farm crops in young plantations, or, under some conditions, small fruits, are looked upon as permissible and often pay for the keep of the young trees until they come into profitable bearing. 85 Cover-crops are in common vogue in cherry orchards in New York and, since with this fruit they can be sown earlier in the season, are used to better advantage than in other orchards to furnish a full supply of humus and to provide nitrogen. ”

“ You boldly look forward, isn't it because you cannot foresee or expect anything terrible, because so far life has been hidden from your young eyes? You are bolder, more honest, deeper than we are, but think only, be just a little magnanimous, and have mercy on me. I was born here, my father and mother lived here, my grandfather too, I love this house. I couldn't understand my life without that cherry orchard, and if it really must be sold, sell me with it! ”

“ In the wild state it is variously called Mazzard, Bird, Wild, Crab and the Gean cherry. It is not as hardy a species as Prunus cerasus and is, therefore, less generally grown but still is a favorite orchard, dooryard and roadside plant in all mid-temperate regions. It refuses to grow, however, in the warmest and coldest parts of the temperate zones. Wherever the species thrives as an orchard plant it is to be found growing spontaneously along fences and roadsides and in open woods from seeds distributed by birds. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the reception-room and the drawing-room nobody remains except LUBOV ANDREYEVNA, who sits huddled up and weeping bitterly. The band plays softly. ANYA and TROFIMOV come in quickly. ANYA goes up to her mother and goes on her knees in front of her. TROFIMOV stands at the drawing-room entrance.
ANYA. Mother! mother, are you crying? My dear, kind, good mother, my beautiful mother, I love you! Bless you! The cherry orchard is sold, we've got it no longer, it's true, true, but don't cry mother, you've still got your life before you, you've still your beautiful pure soul . ”

“ 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. ”

“ To secure a sufficient number of fruit-bearing shoots, and in right locations, and to throw sufficient sap into those shoots to enable them to mature the fruit. With a certain amount of pruning, you may double the quantity of fruit, or destroy half that the trees would have produced if not trained at all. One half of the fruit of any orchard depends upon correct pruning. It also has a great influence upon the quality of fruit. The cherry is almost the only fruit-tree that throws out nearly the right number of branches, and in the right places. ”

“ Brown-rot, an annual scourge in most cherry orchards, takes less toll from trees cultivated and cover-cropped, these operations covering the mummied fruits and keeping the spores they carry from coming to light and life. ”

“ They have not been as vigorous, as healthy or as productive as cherry trees should be in a commercial variety of first rank. The cause, however, may be in the location rather than in the variety, for in an orchard but a few miles distant Bing does much better than on these grounds. ”

“ LOPAKHIN. Up to now in the villages there were only the gentry and the labourers, and now the people who live in villas have arrived. All towns now, even small ones, are surrounded by villas. And it's safe to say that in twenty years' time the villa resident will be all over the place. At present he sits on his balcony and drinks tea, but it may well come to pass that he'll begin to cultivate his patch of land, and then your cherry orchard will be happy, rich, splendid. ”

“ The birds are so fond of ripe cherries that we sometimes have difficulty in getting our share before the robins and thrushes have taken all. Birds frequently fly away with the cherries, eat the pulp, and drop the stone, which, of course, contains a seed, and this seed then often sprouts and grows into a cherry tree. We sometimes find good cherries growing in hedges and thickets, far from the orchard ”

“ GAEV. [Says nothing to her, only waves his hand; to FIERS, weeping] Here, take this. . . . Here are anchovies, herrings from Kertch. . . . I've had no food to-day. . . . I have had a time! [The door from the billiard-room is open; the clicking of the balls is heard, and YASHA'S voice, "Seven, eighteen!" GAEV'S expression changes, he cries no more] I'm awfully tired. Help me change my clothes, Fiers.
Goes out through the drawing-room; FIERS after him.
PISCHIN. What happened? Come on, tell us!
LUBOV. Is the cherry orchard sold?
LOPAKHIN. It is sold. ”

“ LUBOV. I don't understand you at all, Ermolai Alexeyevitch.
LOPAKHIN. You will get twenty-five roubles a year for each dessiatin from the leaseholders at the very least, and if you advertise now I'm willing to bet that you won't have a vacant plot left by the autumn; they'll all go. In a word, you're saved. I congratulate you. Only, of course, you'll have to put things straight, and clean up. . . . For instance, you'll have to pull down all the old buildings, this house, which isn't any use to anybody now, and cut down the old cherry orchard. ”

“ The vines twisted lovingly up the poles, which in many places bent beneath masses of green fruit, or else the topmost shoots crossed and intertwined from one pole to another, and the whole field was woven into a large arbour. Where the sunlight fell upon the green clusters it turned them to pure gold, and the leaves, blowing gently to and fro, seemed to rejoice in their great beauty. The cherry-orchards were so pretty and trim that I wondered if, like the hop-fields, they were not sometimes [Pg 44] called gardens. ”

“ The cherry, too, fruits more quickly after planting, ripens earlier in the season and its varieties are more regular in bearing and usually more fruitful—characters that greatly commend it to fruit-growing people. Probably it is the most popular of all fruits for the garden, dooryard, roadside and small orchard. All in all, while adorning a somewhat humbler place in pomology, it is more generally useful than the showier and more delicate plum and peach. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While these varieties are hardier than the Richmond the trees are lightly protected with straw during the winter for protection of the fruit buds, when paying crops are secured. North of Orel the Griottes alone are grown on the bush plan, with from three to six stems springing up from the crown. In Vladimir tens of thousands of acres are covered with these bush cherry orchards, producing many train loads annually of fruit of surprising excellence, considering the far northern and inland location of the plantations. ”

“ They are not all ripe at once, nor may be gathered at once, therefore with a light Ladder, made to stand of it selfe, without hurting the boughes, mount to the tree, and with a gathering hooke, gather those which be full ripe, and put them into your Cherry-pot, or Kybzey hanging by your side, or vpon any bough you please, and be sure to breake no stalke, but that the cherry hangs by ”

“ Sour Cherries are almost universally grown with closed centers but some growers prefer the form of the vase for Sweet varieties, though the majority hold to trees with central trunks and many subsidiary branches. Little pruning is done in cherry orchards after the first two or three years, by which time the sapling has been shaped. Subsequent pruning consists in removing dead, injured or crowded branches and an occasional superfluous one. Heading-in finds little favor with experienced growers. ”