KIRTLAND

Prunus avium

In the collection of cherries at this Station, Kirtland stands among the best of the Bigarreaus in quality of fruit—in fact is hardly surpassed in richness and delicacy of flavor. The fruit, too, as may be seen from the color-plate, is handsome, the cherries resembling the well-known Napoleon but being a little darker in color. The flesh is firm and meaty and stands handling well and also resists the brown-rot as well as any other cherry. With these splendid qualities of fruit, Kirtland would long ago have been one of the standard commercial cherries were its tree-characters better. Wherever tried, the complaint comes that the trees lack vigor and can be grown successfully only on choice cherry soils and under the best of care. With these faults the variety can be recommended only for home orchards and for local markets where there is demand for a very early Bigarreau, since this variety ripens before most other cherries of its kind.

Kirtland was grown in 1842 by Professor J. P. Kirtland of Cleveland, Ohio, and ranks foremost in quality and appearance of all the seedlings raised by this well-known cherry-breeder. The American Pomological Society, in 1852, mentioned this sort as deserving of further trial and, in 1854, listed it among the varieties of promising fruits. Elliott, in his Fruit Book, noted this cherry under the name Kirtland's Mary, in honor of Professor Kirtland's daughter, and classed it as a variety worthy of general cultivation. Hogg, in 1866, dropped the name Kirtland and listed it as Mary, while in the American Pomological Society's Special Report for 1905 it is called Kirtland. According to the rules of pomological nomenclature, Hogg was correct in holding the name Mary but, since there is another Mary and no worthy sort bearing the name of so eminent a horticulturist as Professor Kirtland, this Station follows the American Pomological Society in the use of Kirtland.

KIRTLAND

Tree small, rather weak, upright-spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk and branches slender, smooth; branches reddish-brown partly overspread with ash-gray, with numerous lenticels; branchlets thick, brown almost entirely overspread with ash-gray, smooth except for the longitudinal, conspicuous, raised lenticels.

Leaves five inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, folded upward, elliptical to obovate, thin; upper surface medium green, somewhat glossy, smooth; lower surface light green, thinly pubescent; apex acute, base abrupt; margin doubly serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole one and three-fourths inches long, slender, tinged with red, lightly pubescent along the upper side, with two or three reniform, reddish glands on the stalk.

Buds pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds or on numerous, very short spurs in clusters variable in size; leaf-scars prominent; blooming in mid-season; flowers white, one and one-fourth inches across; borne in dense clusters; pedicels one inch long, pubescent, reddish-green; calyx-tube tinged with red, light green within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes reddish, obtuse, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals roundish-oval, entire, with short, broad claws and a notched apex; filaments in four series, the longest one-half inch; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens.

Fruit matures in mid-season; three-fourths of an inch in diameter, cordate, compressed; cavity wide, flaring; suture a more or less distinct line; apex roundish or pointed, with a small depression at the center; color amber overspread with bright red; dots numerous, small, grayish, conspicuous; stem one and three-fourths inches long, adhering to the fruit; skin tough; flesh whitish, with colorless juice, tender, meaty, with a pleasant and refreshing flavor; very good to best in quality; stone free, small, roundish-ovate, with smooth surfaces; ridged along the ventral suture.