LITHAUER
Prunus cerasus
- 1. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 328. 1888. 2. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 17:9. 1892. 3. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 245. 1894. 4. Del. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:128. 1900. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Sp. Rpt. 33. 1904-05. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 27. 1909.
It is barely possible that Lithauer, if the trees can be obtained, may have some value in the coldest and bleakest parts of New York where less hardy sorts cannot be grown. The variety is too poor in quality to be worth planting where the better but less hardy cherries will grow. We greatly doubt whether it is worthy a place in the recommended list of fruits of the American Pomological Society. It is included here only because of the prominence given it by a place in the fruit list named.
This is one of the varieties imported from Russia by Professor J. L. Budd of Iowa, who reported that it was much grown in southwest Russia for drying and in making cherry wine. As tested in various parts of this country Lithauer has proved of little value except in the extreme north. The American Pomological Society, in 1909, listed this sort in its catalog of recommended fruits for northern fruit regions. The following description is compiled:
Tree large, vigorous, tall, weeping, hardy.
Fruit matures from the middle to the last of July; small, roundish, slightly oblate; stem long, averaging one and one-half inches, slender; color dark purplish-red becoming almost black at maturity; skin thick, tough; flesh dark red, with reddish juice, firm, meaty, quite acid or bitter even when fully ripe; poor in quality; stone variable in size, roundish.