CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Cherry Plant: (Prunmus spp) – Cherry is a fleshy drupe (stone) fruit of plants from the genus “Prunus” members of the family “Rosaecea”. This species in the rose family has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes (2n=16). The fruit is a drupe which measures 1-2cm (0.4-0.8in) in diameter. (larger in some cultivated regions/sections). It is pale yellow in colour when mature in the mid-summer; it is edible and variably sweet to eat. However, all parts of the fruit except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic in nature containing an acid called “CYANOGENIC  GLYCOSIDES”. Each fruit contain a single hard-shelled stone 8-12mm long, 7-10mm wide and 6-8mm thick grooved along the flattest edge. The seed (kernel) inside the stone is 6-8mm long. The fruit is readily eaten by numerous kinds of birds and mammals which digest the fruity flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings. Some rodent and a fero birds notably the “HAWFINCH” also crack open the seeds to eat the kernel inside. There are two major varieties of cherries namely;
The sweet cherry – (Prumus avium)
The sour cherry – (prunus cerasus)
They are distinguished just as the names suggest. That is by their distinctive tastes. Both varieties of cherry tree can be grown from seeds (otherwise known as cherry pits). The trees grow to be between 8 and 30ft tall depending on whether they are dwarf, semi-dwarf or full sized. The wild cherries have been part of the human diet for a very long time. Some eighteen and nineteenth centuries ago, botanical authors assumed a western Asia origin for the species based on the writings of a botanist called PLINY. However archeological findings of seeds from pre-historic Europe contradict this view. The stones have been found in deposits at Bronze Age settlements throughout Europe including Britain. However, in one dated example, wild cherry micro-fossils were found in a core sample from the “defruits” beneath a dwelling at an early and middle bronze age pile dwelling site and in the shore of a former lake at “desenzano del garda or lonato, near the northern shore of lake garda Italy. The date is estimated at early bronze age 1A carbon-dated then to 2077BC plus or mims 10 years. The natural forest was largely cleared at that time. By 800BC cherries were being actively cultivated in Asia minor and soon after in Greece as the main ancestor of the cultivated cherry.
YIELD OF PLANT
Crop yield can be defined as a measurement of the amount of a crop that was harvested per unit of land area. crop yield is the measurement often used for a cereal, grain or legume and its normally measured in metric tons per hectare (or kilogrammes per hectare).CHEERY PLANT
Crop yield can also refer to the actual seed generation from the plant for example, a  grain or wheat yielding three new grains of wheat would have a crop yield of 1:3. It is also referred to as “agricultural output”.
Dictionary speaking, yield  has two meanings that seem quite different. “an amount” or “to give way”. The yield of the recipe was twelve brownie to avoid being tripped, Mary was forced to yield to the children on her way to the brownie plate. While these meanings seem quite different, they both mean “to give”. Yield can also be defined as to give forth or produce by a natural process or in return for cultivation.CHEERY PLANT