Cherry tree

“ Decayed wood, spent tanbark, and forest-leaves, are good for the cherry. In removing and transplanting, be careful not to injure the roots, or expose them to sun and air, as they are so tender, that a degree of exposure that would be little felt by the apple or peach tree will destroy the cherry. If you are going to keep a cherry-tree out of the ground half an hour, throw a damp mat, or damp straw, over the roots, and you will save disappointment. The rich alluvial soils of the West are regarded unfavorable to the cherry. ”

“ From Ontario to Dakota, and south to Florida and Texas, this tree is found, reaching its best estate in moist, rich soil, but climbing mountain canyons at elevations of from five to seven thousand feet. A worthy shade and park tree, the black cherry is charmingly unconventional, carrying its mass of drooping foliage with the grace of a willow, its satiny brown bark curling at the edges of irregular plates like that of the cherry birch. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And that is just what they are trying to do; for the cherry blossom is not wise enough to know that here in the schoolroom there are no bee visitors to bring it yellow dust, and to help it grow into a cherry. These leaves are the little handkerchiefs which the cherry tree, just like the apple tree we read about long ago, uses in signaling the bees. ”

“ The cherry-tree in blossom is considered by the Japanese the ideal of beauty in the vegetable kingdom, and during the flowering season of this tree excursions are often undertaken to famous cherry-groves where hour after hour is passed in tranquil admiration of the flower-splendour of the tree. ”

“ As I have already described the sand cherries, which greatly exceed the two other sorts both in flavour and size, I shall give no further description of them. The wood of the black cherry-tree is very useful, and works well into cabinet ware.
The SWEET GUM TREE or LIQUID AMBER (Copalm) is not only extremely common, but it affords a balm, the virtues of which are infinite. Its bark is black and hard, and its wood so tender and supple, that when the tree is felled, you may draw from the middle of it rods of five or six feet in length. ”

“ If the trees are dying for lack of summer moisture it is idle to do much for them until you can give them irrigation right after the fruit ripens. The cherry tree takes kindly to cutting back and will give good new fruit-bearing shoots if the roots are in good condition. It is desirable to remove surplus branches entirely rather than to cut back everything to a definite height, the branches to be removed being those which show disposition to die back and those which are running out too far so as to reduce the space between the trees or to interfere with branches from other trees. ”

“ Wild cherry trees are seldom felled till they show signs of decay, and as they are not long-lived—a century being about the outside span of their vigorous life—the quality of the timber should not be estimated from trees more than sixty or seventy years old. The growth is rapid, and the tree may be drawn up in shelter to a great height; there is a specimen in Windsor Park, near the Bishopsgate, which was 93 feet high in 1904, with a girth of 9 feet 3 inches. ”

“ In the Kentish cherry the stone adheres so firmly to the footstalk, that it can be drawn out of the flesh; and this renders the fruit well fitted for drying. The Tobacco-leaved cherry, according to Sageret and Thompson, produces gigantic leaves, more than a foot and sometimes even eighteen inches in length, and half a foot in breadth. The Weeping cherry, on the other hand, is valuable only as an ornament, and, according to Downing, is "a charming little tree with slender weeping branches, clothed with small almost myrtle-like foliage." There is also a peach-leaved variety. ”

“ There are various wild growing species of cherry, which must not be confused with the cultivated varieties. The wild black cherry (Prunus serotina) is very common in our woods. It is a handsome tree, varying from 15 to 100 feet in height. It has a smooth bark on the younger branches. The fruit is rather small, fleshy portion thin and of a very dark color when fully ripened. The wild black cherry must not be confused with the poisonous choke cherry (Prunus virginiana) , which is a smaller tree and has red berries instead of black. ”

“ The tree was 5 feet 2 inches high from where the red root begins, or which was buried in the earth, to where it divides itself first into branches. The trunk at thickest was about 5 inches diameter, the wood light and open, and incapable of polishing, covered with a smooth bark of bluish-white, like to a standard cherry-tree in good health, which has not above half that diameter; indeed a part of the bark is a reddish brown; it flattens at top like trees that are exposed to snow-blasts or sea-air, which gives it a stunted appearance. It is remarkable for a penury of leaves. ”

“ The choke cherry is a miniature tree no higher than a thrifty lilac bush, from the Eastern states to the Mississippi, but between Nebraska and northern Texas it reaches thirty-five feet in height. The trunk is always short, often crooked or leaning, and never exceeds one foot in diameter. Its shiny bark, long racemed flowers and fruit, and the pungent odor of its leaves and bark might lead one to confuse it with a black cherry sapling. But there is a marked difference between the two species. The choke cherry's odor is not only pungent, but rank and disagreeable besides. ”

“ 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 ”

“ In the forest the lumberman is glad to find wild black cherry trees of large size. The lumber is very valuable for interior finish of houses, and for furniture. It is hard, and close-grained, and dark reddish-brown in colour, with a lustre, when polished, that puts it in the class with mahogany and rosewood. It is more often used nowadays as a veneer on cheaper woods. Parlour cars and steamships, and fine houses are very often finished in cherry. The small limbs and other bits of the lumber are utilised for tool handles and for inlay work. The wood is too valuable to waste. ”

“ Yet trees are the great engines of nature. The mazzard cherry tree, growing wild throughout the southeastern United States, often yields twenty bushels of fruit. Fifty bushels and upwards are often obtained from the mature apple trees. The walnut yields its bushels, the persimmon breaks with fruit.
Europe shows us an agriculture making considerable use of crop-yielding trees other than the ordinary fruits. ”

“ We know from observation and experience that the common red cherry does exceedingly well there, while the best cultivated are apt to suffer much from the winters. One reason is, the common cherry is a slow-going, hardy tree, while the cultivated is more thrifty, and therefore more tender. ”

“ The wild cherry tree wood, which is the most frequently employed, is seldom free from defects in the bark, and some skill is exercised in so repairing these defective places that the mending shall be invisible. ”

“ Anglers in Norwegian rivers are familiar with the white plumes of bird cherry, waving like fine lace-work from the grim cliffs overhanging many a green dal.
Lovely as the gean tree is when in full blossom, some of the double-flowering Japanese cherries are even more so, and they have this advantage, that the display is not nearly so fleeting. What may be the wild parent of these cultivated forms I am unable to say; but Mr. J. H. Veitch, writing from Yokohama, indicates that some, at least, are not cherries at all:
"The cherries in this neighbourhood are magnificent. ”

“ The cherry is dwarfed by being worked on the Mahaleb—a small, handsome tree, with glossy, deep-green foliage, much cultivated abroad as an ornament of lawns. Except in the hands of practiced gardeners, trees thus dwarfed are seldom satisfactory, for much skill and care are required in their cultivation. Their chief advantages consist in the fact that they bear early and take but little space. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But do try to remember this: even the world’s not so black as it’s painted.’
CHAPTER 52 1 One morning a very young cherry-tree that Mary herself had planted in the garden was doing the most delightful things—it was pushing out leaves and tight pink buds along the whole length of its childish branches. ”

“ We have cultivated varieties, ripening in succession throughout the cherry season. There is no necessity for cultivating the common red and very acid cherry, except in climates too vigorous for the more tender cultivated varieties. The cherry is an ornamental tree, making a beautiful shade, besides the luxury of its fruit. ”

“ The fruits are extensively used for canning. Cherry trees should be planted when 2 and 3 years old. Too rich soil tends to make growth at the expense of fruit, particularly in the sweet Cherries. For the sweet types, a strong, gravelly loam is best. Sour Cherries thrive well on clay loams.
Trees of the sour Cherry should be planted 18 by 18 ft. apart, in well prepared under-drained soil. The trees may be slightly trimmed back each year, keeping the head low and bushy.
Black Tartarian Cherry
The sweet Cherries have proved disappointing in many instances from the rotting of the fruit. ”

“ The four cherries which Gerarde says the "ancient herbalists have set down" are, it is easy to see: first, the wild Prunus avium; second, cultivated sweet varieties of Prunus avium; third, the sour Prunus cerasus; fourth, the Dwarf Cherry, Prunus fruticosa.
"The English Cherry tree groweth to a high and great tree, the body whereof is of a mean bignesse, which is parted above into very many boughes, with a barke somewhat smooth, of a brown crimson colour, tough and pliable ”

“ Remarks.—The wood of wild cherry from pioneer times has been a favorite wood, and for this reason the tree soon disappeared and today large trees are very rare. The wood is strong, close-grained, reddish-brown, and very much resembles mahogany. In value it stands second in Indiana woods. It is used principally for furniture, office and store fixtures.
The wild cherry grows readily from seed; is not difficult to transplant; adapts itself to almost all kinds of soils and grows rapidly. In Spring it is one of the very first trees to put out its leaves. ”

“ The boxes into which the cherries are packed are, of course, much smaller than the boxes into which the apples are packed. A cherry box holds only 8 pounds of fruit.
One of the most beautiful of all the beautiful sights on a fruit-ranch is the blossoming of the cherry-trees in May. The waxy white blossoms not only cover—literally and truly cover—the branches from end to end, but they also stick to the trunk and main limbs of the trees, much as the feathers muffle the legs of certain kinds of pullets. ”

“ The wild cherry (Prunus emarginata, var. mollis) is a small, handsome tree seldom more than a foot in diameter at the base. It makes valuable lumber and its black, astringent fruit furnishes a rich resource as food for the birds. A smaller form is common in the Sierra, the fruit of which is eagerly eaten by the Indians and hunters in time of need.
The wild apple (Pyrus rivularis) is a fine, hearty, handsome little tree that grows well in rich, cool soil along streams and on the edges of beaver meadows from California through Oregon and Washington to southeastern Alaska. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sand cherry X Satsuma plum No. 145 is in the same class as Sapa. The color of the fruit is bluish black when ripe, the flesh purple, pit small and nearly freestone; fruit ripens first part of August. This tree is a strong grower and makes a large tree. We also have another plum, Compass cherry X Climax, about the only variety which fruited this year. The color of the skin is almost blue when fully ripe; the meat is green and of a very pleasant flavor. The pit is small and clingstone; size of fruit is about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. The tree is a strong, upright grower. ”