Of cherries there are two common types, the sweet cherries and the sour cherries. The sweet cherries are larger and taller-growing trees. They comprise the varieties known as the hearts, bigarreaus, and dukes. The sour cherries (Fig. 275) include the various kinds of morellos and pie cherries, and these usually ripen after the sweet cherries.

The sour cherries make low, round-headed trees. The fruits are extensively used for canning. Sour cherries thrive well on clay loams.

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.

The sweet cherries have proved disappointing in many instances from the rotting of the fruit. This may never be entirely avoided, but good cultivation, soil not too rich in nitro-gen, attention to spraying, and picking the fruit when dry, will lessen the loss very much. In years of severe rotting the fruit should be picked before it becomes fully ripe, placed in a cool, airy room and allowed to color. It will be nearly as well flavored as if left on the tree; and, as the fungus usually attacks only the ripe fruit, a considerable part of the crop may be saved. Set the trees 25 or 30 ft. apart. Only very well-drained land should be devoted to sweet cherries, preferably one of a somewhat gravelly nature.

Leaf-blight is readily controlled by timely spraying with bordeaux mixture (see bottom p. 211). The curculio or fruit worm may be controlled by jarring, as for plums, or by spraying (p. 202). The jarring process is seldom employed with cherries for the curculio, inasmuch as the poison spray seems, for some reason, to be particularly effective on these fruits.

Varieties Of Cherry

Of the sour varieties, May Duke (Fig. 36), Richmond, Dyehouse, Montmorency, Ostheim, Hortense (Fig. 34), Late Kentish, Suda, and Morello (English Morello) (Fig. 35) are the most valuable. The following sweet varieties are of value where they succeed: Rockport, (Yellow) Spanish, Elton, (Governor) Wood, Coe, Windsor, (Black) Tartarian, and Downer.

275. Sour or pie cherries.