William W. Valk, of Flushing, Long Island, N. Y., introduced it to the
notice of American fruit growers in 1846, having imported some of the
plants in the spring of that year."

This variety is now very widely disseminated, and its culture is
apparently becoming increasingly profitable every year. Two essentials
are requisite to success with it--high manuring and skilful pruning.
It has the tendency to produce long branches, on which there are but
few buds. Rigorous cutting back, so as to cause branching joints and
fruit spurs, should be practiced annually. The foliage is strong and
coarse, and the fruit much more acid than the Dutch family; but size
and beauty carry the market, and the Cherry can be made, by high
culture, very large and beautiful.

Versailles, or _La Versaillaise_, is a figurative bone of contention.
The horticultural doctors disagree so decidedly that the rest of us
can, without presumption, think for ourselves. Mr. A. S. Fuller has
probably given the subject more attention than any one else, and he
asserts, without any hesitancy, that this so-called variety is
identical with the Cherry. Mr. Fuller is certainly entitled to his
opinion, for he obtained plants of the Cherry and Versailles from all
the leading nurserymen in America, and imported them from the standard
nurseries abroad, not only once, but repeatedly, yet could never get
two distinct varieties. The writer in the "Canadian Horticulturist"
also states in regard to the Versailles:

"Some pains were taken to obtain this variety on different occasions,
and from the most reliable sources, so that there might be no mistake
as to the correctness of the name; but after many years of trial we
are unable to perceive any decided variation, either in the quality of