Under the ferment of Mendelian and De Vriesian ideas we seem to be at the beginning of an era of great improvement of plants. There have never been well-directed efforts to improve fruits, yet something has been done with all. Now, when there is an onrush of new discoveries in plant-breeding, seems to be a particularly opportune time to tell all that can be learned about how cherries have been brought from their wild state to their present perfection. This we try to do in giving the origin and history of varieties, especially as to parentage and manner of origin, though such information is scant and very fragmentary. As in the previous fruit books some prominence is given in foot-notes to biography. A knowledge of the career of those who have been giants in their day in the development of any industry is most helpful to the best understanding, indeed, is almost indispensable to the fullest comprehension, of the industry. The short foot-notes, it is hoped, will serve to give some conception of what the master builders in pomology were like in training, character, and methods of work. From the reception which these sketches in former fruit books have received, the writers feel that the considerable expenditure of time and thought that these biographical notices have required is amply justified and that the effort to give credit due and some small honor to the promoters of pomology has been well worth while. For aid in the preparation of _The Cherries of New York_ I am especially indebted to those whose names appear on the title page, to my associate, Mr. R. D. Anthony, for reading proof; to the Station editor, Mr. F. H. Hall, who has had charge of the proof reading; to Zeese-Wilkinson Company, New York City, who have had an especially difficult task in making the color-plates and who have done the work well; and to the J. B. Lyon Company, Albany, New York, for their painstaking work in printing the book. U. P. HEDRICK, _Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station._ TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS xi CHAPTER I.--CULTIVATED CHERRIES 1 CHAPTER II.--THE HISTORY OF CULTIVATED CHERRIES 39 CHAPTER III.--CHERRY CULTURE 65 CHAPTER IV.--LEADING VARIETIES OF CHERRIES 97 CHAPTER V.--MINOR VARIETIES OF CHERRIES 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY, REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS 337 INDEX 347 INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OF CHARLES DOWNING _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE ABBESSE D'OIGNIES 98 ARCH DUKE 100