Question
I have a cherry tree about 15 year old that I would like to make a cutting and give it to a friend who loves the fruit it bears. how would I go about this.

Answer
Hi Robert,
Thanx for your question.  Most fruit trees are grafted to stronger root stock.  Sometimes the hybrids are not strong enough to survive without being grafted to a wilder, hardier rootstock and sometimes that rootstock isn't even related to the particular fruit.  However, with that said, here are the instructiosn for propating a fruit tree vegetatively.

Many fruit trees have suckers or shoots coming up about them.  You can dig these up and sever them from the mother plant and plant them separately.  You can take branches that are close to the ground, expose a patch of dirt, lay part of the branch (still attached to the tree) on the ground (stripped of leaves and scraped so that some of the inner skin is exposed.  Place a rock on top and  by next season, you will have a new plant.  Cut it from the original tree, dig it up and plant it elsewhere.  The most difficult method is to take softwood cuttings, (green stems) eight inches long and strip of all but the last two or three leaves.  No flowers or fruit attached.  Make the cutting where the cutting is attached to the main limb.  Dip the cutting in rooting hormone (available at your nursery and some DIYs) and stick it 1-2 inches into some warm wet soil or soil less mix.  Keep the soil warm (70-75 degrees) and mist the cutting twice a day.  Rooting usually begins in 8 weeks or so but could take longer.  You can probe around the cutting gently with a pencil to see how much root growth there is.  I hope this helps.
Tom