All know that the Sweet Cherry is a little difficult to grow--is capricious as to soils, climates, cultivation and pruning, and as to diseases and insects. The Mazzard now used for stocks has the faults of the species to which it belongs. The Mahaleb, on the other hand, is adapted to a greater diversity of soils; is hardier to either heat or cold; less particular about cultivation; will stand more cutting in the nursery if pruning be necessary; is less susceptible to aphids which in many parts of the United States trouble cherries in the nursery row; and, more to the point than all else, in New York at least, is not nearly as badly infested with the shot-hole fungus, _Cylindrosporium padi_, which often ruins plantations of Mazzard stock. Mahaleb stock, too, is more easily "worked" than the Mazzard both in the actual work of budding and in having a longer season for this nursery operation. Cherries on Mahaleb ripen their wood earlier than those on Mazzard and may thus be dug earlier in the fall. Nurserymen and fruit-growers alike agree to this statement of the superior merits of the Mahaleb as a nursery plant. The facts set forth are matters of common observation--so well known that it is not necessary to verify them experimentally. A half-century of experience in America on many soils, in many climates and under widely varied conditions has demonstrated that it is easier to grow cherries in the nursery on the Mahaleb than on the Mazzard stock. From experience in the orchard, fruit-growers have established several facts as to the relative value of Mazzard and Mahaleb stocks from their standpoint. These are: 1. Cherries on Mahaleb are hardier to cold than those on Mazzard stocks. This hardiness is due, in part at least, to the fact that cherry wood on Mahaleb ripens sooner than on Mazzard. This superior hardiness of the Mahaleb is evident in the nursery-row as well as in the orchard and is a matter of great importance in northern nursery regions. In this connection it should be said that the Mahaleb is not as hardy as might be wished and that there are, as we shall later show, still hardier stocks. 2. There is no question but that the Mahaleb is a dwarfing stock. It came into use and in Europe continues to serve almost the sole purpose of dwarfing varieties worked upon it. This retarding effect is not fully realized by American cherry-growers because for the first few years the diminution in size is not apparent and even at the close of a decade the difference in size is not as marked as it would be between standard and dwarf apples or pears of the same age. 3. Cherry-growers who have tried both stocks agree that most varieties come in bearing earlier on Mahaleb than on Mazzard stocks. From the known effects of dwarfing on other fruit trees this would be expected.