BLACK CHERRY
(Prunus Serotina)

This widely distributed tree supplies the cherry wood of commerce. Its natural range extends from Nova Scotia westward through the Canadian provinces to the Kaministiquia river; south to Tampa bay in Florida and west to North Dakota, eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas. The tree is known as wild black cherry, wild cherry, black cherry, rum cherry, whiskey cherry, and choke cherry.

Cherry belongs to a remarkably large family and the ordinary observer would never suspect the relationship that exists between it and other growths to which it bears little resemblance. It is in the rose family (RosaceÆ). It has multitudes of small and large cousins, most of them small, however. Among them are the crabapple, the serviceberry, the haws, thorns, plums, and the peach, besides plants which do not rise to the dignity of trees.

The crown of black cherry is narrow and the branches are horizontal. In height the tree ranges from fifty to one hundred or more feet. The bark is a dark reddish-brown, rough and broken into plates, becoming smoother toward the top. The branchlets are a rich reddish-brown, and are marked with tiny orange-colored dots. The leaves are small, alternate, oblong or oval lanceolate, taper-pointed at the apex and pointed or rounded at the base, finely serrate; at maturity glabrous, firm, glossy, the light colored midrib being very distinct. The flowers are white and grow on pedicels in long slender racemes, which terminate leafy shoots. The fruit is almost black, showing deep red coloring beneath and is a small round drupe; vinous, although not disagreeable to the taste. In most instances a liking for it must be acquired, but comparatively few people ever take the trouble to acquire it. The old settlers among the Alleghany mountains had a way of pressing the juice from the drupes and by some simple process converting it into “cherry bounce,” a beverage somewhat bitter but it never went begging when the old-time mountaineers were around. This was doubtless what persons had in mind who called it rum cherry. Few fruits, either wild or tame, contain more juice in proportion to bulk. Ripe fruit is employed as a flavor for alcoholic liquors. The bark contains hydrocyanic acid and is used in medicine. The peculiar odor of cherry bark is due to this acid.

In early years the ripening of the cherry crop among the ranges of the Appalachian mountains was a signal for bears to congregate where cherry trees were thickest. The cubs were then large enough to follow their mothers—in August—and it was considered a dangerous season in the cherry woods, because the old bears would grow fierce if molested while feeding. The mountaineers knew enough to stay away from the danger points at that time, unless they went there purposely to engage in a bear fight. It was a common saying among those people that “cherry bears” should be let alone.

The cherry’s chief importance in this country has been due to its lumber. Unfortunately, that value lies chiefly in the past, for the supply is running low. It never was very great, for, though the species has a large range, it is sparingly dispersed through the forests. In many parts of its range a person might travel all day in the woods and see few cherry trees, and perhaps none. The best stands hardly ever cover more than a few acres. Generally the trees grow singly or in clumps. It appears to be nearly wholly a matter of soil and light, for the seeds, which are carried by birds, are scattered in immense numbers, and only those grow which chance to find conditions just right. The tree wants rich ground and plenty of room, which is a combination not often found in primeval forest regions; but, since the country has been largely cleared, cherry trees spring up along fence rows and in nooks and corners. If let alone they grow rapidly, but trunks so produced are of little value for lumber, because too short and limby. In the forest the tree lifts its light crown high on a slender trunk to reach the sunshine, and such trunks supply the cherry lumber of commerce. Near the northern limit of its range it seems to abandon its demand for good soil and is content if it is supplied with light only. It betakes itself to the face of cliffs, sometimes overhanging the sea, and so near it that the branches are drenched in spray thrown up by breakers. It is needless to say that no good lumber is produced under such circumstances.

The first loss of cherry occurred when the farms were cleared. It stood on the best ground, and the land-hungry Anglo-Saxon wanted that for himself. He cut the tall shapely cherry trees, built fences and barns of some of the logs, and burned the balance in the clearing. Then came the pioneer lumberman who did not take much, because his old up-and-down saw, which was run by water, would cut only about a thousand feet a day, and there was plenty of other kinds of timber. But when the steam mill put in its appearance, cherry went fast. Its price was high enough to pay for a long haul. From that day till this, cherry has gone to market as rapidly as millmen could get to it.

Next to walnut, it is the highest priced lumber produced in the United States. The average cut per mill, according to returns of those who sawed it in 1909, was only 11,200 feet, and the total output that year was only 24,594,000 feet, contributed by twenty-nine states. The five leading producers were, in the order named, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana. The next year the total output fell to 18,237,000 feet, and cherry went down to a place among the “minor species,” such as dogwood, alder, locust, and buckeye. The day of its importance in the lumber industry is past. It has become too scarce to attract much attention, but there will always be some cherry in the market, though veteran trunks, three and four feet through and good for four sixteen-foot logs, will be seldom seen in the years to come.

While good taste ordinarily dictates that cherry be finished in a tone approximating its natural color, it is quite frequent that it masquerades as mahogany. A well-known and perfect method of making cherry look like mahogany is to have the wood rubbed with diluted nitric acid, which prepares it for the materials to be subsequently applied; afterwards, to a filtered mixture of an ounce and a half of dragon’s blood dissolved in a pint of spirits of wine, is added one-third that quantity of carbonate of soda, the whole constituting a very thin liquid which is applied to the wood with a soft brush. This process is repeated at short intervals until the wood assumes the external appearance of mahogany. While cherry is employed as an imitation of mahogany, it is in its turn imitated also. Sweet birch is finished to look like cherry, and for that reason is sometimes known as cherry birch.

Cherry weighs 36.28 pounds per cubic foot; it is very porous, but the pores are small and are diffused through all parts of the annual ring. The wood has no figure. Its value is due to color and luster. The medullary rays are numerous but small, and in quarter-sawing they do not show as mirrors, like oak, but as a soft luster covering the whole surface.

The principal uses of cherry have always been in furniture and finish, but it has many minor uses, such as tool handles, boxes for garden seeds, spirit levels and other tools, and implements, patterns, penholders, actions for organs and piano players, baseblocks for electrotypes and other printing plates, and cores for high-class panels. Aside from its color, its chief value is due to its comparative freedom from checking and warping. This cherry is one of the few trees that cross the equator. It extends from Canada far down the west coast of South America.