Bing is one of the best of the several very good cherries from the
Pacific Northwest. But few Sweet Cherries equal it in size and
attractiveness and none surpass it in quality, so that it may be said to
be as good as any of the dessert cherries. It is, too, a very good
shipping fruit, ranking with the best of the Bigarreaus, to which group
it belongs, as a cherry for distant markets. Another quality commending
the variety is that it hangs well on the trees and the crop ripens at
one time so that the harvest consists of but one picking. While many
cherry-growers speak well of the trees, unfortunately we cannot do so
from their behavior on the grounds of this Station. 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. The variety, though
comparatively new, is no longer on probation. It has a niche in the
cherry flora of the country, deserving a place in the collection of
every amateur by virtue of its splendid fruit. When it is happy in soil
and climate, Bing is bound to be one of the leading commercial cherries.
Seth Lewelling of Milwaukee, Oregon, the originator of several of our
finest cherries, grew Bing from the seed of Republican in 1875. The
variety was named after a Chinese workman. In 1899 the American
Pomological Society placed the variety on its fruit list.
Tree large, vigorous, erect becoming upright-spreading, rather
open, productive; trunk and branches thick, smooth; branches
brownish with numerous, small lenticels; branchlets thick, long,
with long internodes, greenish-brown, smooth, pubescent, with
small, raised, conspicuous lenticels.
Leaves abundant, large, folded upward, ovate to obovate of medium
thickness; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light
green, pubescent; apex abruptly pointed, or acute, base abrupt;
margin slightly serrate, glandular; petiole long, pubescent,
thickish, tinged red, with from one to three large, reniform,
reddish glands on the stalk.
Fruit matures in mid-season or later; very large, one inch in
diameter, broadly cordate, somewhat compressed, slightly angular;
cavity deep, of medium width, abrupt, regular; suture a dark
line; apex roundish or slightly depressed; color very dark red,
almost black; dots small, russet, inconspicuous; stem variable
in thickness, one and one-fourth inches long; skin of medium
thickness, tough, adherent to the pulp; flesh purplish-red with
dark purple juice, rather coarse, firm, very meaty, brittle,
sweet; of very good quality; stone semi-free, large, ovate to
oval, blunt, with smooth surfaces.
BLACK GUIGNE
_Prunus avium_
=1.= Prince _Pom. Man._ =2=:112. 1832.
_Scheur-Kers._ =2.= Knoop _Fructologie_ =2=:36, 43. 1771.
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