Various causes were assigned for the lack of interest in the different counties, 

 the chief ones' being lack of help, excessive railroad rates to markets, poor trans- 

 portation facilities involving several changes in transit for express shipments, 

 little demand for the fruit, and no profits. 



The currant and gooseberry have had a share in the increased acreage of 

 small fruits, but, while the area devoted to these two fruits has been gradually 

 increasing, and is doing so especially at the present time, they have not yet been 

 given the acreage and cultivation that they deserve. The public, as a whole, has 

 not been educated to a correct appreciation of these fruits as a valuable addition to 

 the more ordinarily used kinds, and further, as they are among our hardiest culti- 

 vated fruits, their value in the northern districts where tree fruits grow with diffi- 

 culty or not at all, is hard to estimate. Both fruits are easily grown, and this 

 fact together with their value for culinary purposes should insure there being 

 at least a few bushes in every home garden. If the fruits were grown at home, 

 when possible, instead of being bought, much larger quantities would be con- 

 sumed. 



Where it is possible then, one cannot do better than grow these fruits for 

 home use. AVTien it is not possible to grow them the opportunity for the 

 commercial grower comes in, and it is to the commercial grower that the urban 

 population must look. And while the urban population has increased tremen- 

 dously during the ten years previous to 1911, yet the increase in the production of 

 currants and gooseberries has been only twelve per cent. In other words the 

 urban population — the consuming population — has increased and is increasing 

 much more rapidly than the planting of these fruits. As indirect proof of this 

 one has but to compare prices ten years ago with those now being received by 

 the growers. In 1901 growers received eighty cents to $1 for black currants. 

 For 1912 and 1913 the returns were $1.75 to $1.95 per eleven quart basket, an 

 increase of practically 100 per cent. Eed currants and gooseberries, too, have 

 S'hown greatly increased returns. In 1900 red currants could hardly be given 

 away, while for 1912 and 1913 they averaged to the grower sixty-five to seventy- 

 five cents per eleven quart basket of good quality fruit. 



Many growers at present claim that the money to be made out of currants 

 and gooseberries is small. In this regard I would like to quote a paragraph from 

 Mr. L. B. Henry's address before the 1913 Ontario Fruit Growers' Convention. 

 Mr. Henry spoke as follows : "A few years ago the price of currants went down 

 so low that they became unprofitable. Black currants were selling in 1899 and 

 1900 at sixty-five cents for a twenty pound basket, and at that time you could 

 not sell red currants at any price. But from that time up to the present prices 

 have steadily risen until in the last two years we have been getting very fair 

 results from these crops. In fact as high as ten-and-one-half cents per pound; 

 lately some at six-and-one-half cents and red varieties less." 



There is little doubt that if growers now gave more attention to their goose- 

 berry and currant plantations, the added returns would more than justify the 

 extra outlay. There are no fruits tliat respond more quickly to good treat- 

 ment than currants and gooseberries. They will stand a good deal of neglect, 

 but if we want large fruit and productive bushes, we must take good care of 

 them. 



There is another point to remember too in connection with planting cur- 

 rants and goosberries. It is this: that though these fruits may sometimes return 

 comparatively small profits yet they serve or should serve as a "filler-in" crop. 

 That ife', varieties should be planted which will mature their fruit when there 



