i6oo 



The Cornell Reading-Courses 



HARVESTING 



The frtiit should be picked when the berries are well colored but still 

 hard and firm. The cautions to observe in harvesting are: (a) to gather 

 the fruit when it is dry; (b) to pick the cluster carefully by means of the 

 stem; and (c) not to bruise the fruit. 



The currant is marketed mostly as a fresh fruit. The packages com- 

 monly used are the quart or the eight-pound baskets. The former are 

 shipped in crates holding thirty-two quarts. The fruit is sent to a special 

 market or handled by commission men. 



YIELDS AND INCOMES 



The currant has not been studied sufficiently to obtain accurate figures 

 of the yields and incomes per acre. The estimates given below, however, 

 are the averages of several patches and are indicative of what the grower 

 may expect. Card * states that with good care currants should yield 

 one hundred to one hundred and fifty bushels per acre, with exceptional 

 yields of two hundred and fifty bushels. At the Central Experimental 

 Farm, Ottawa, Canada,! the highest yields averaged at the rate of one 

 hundred and eighty to two hundred bushels per acre. The survey in 

 western New York comprised nineteen patches for igio and five for 

 1909. The following table shows the average yield and income on this 

 area; it also gives the average price that the growers received per quart: 



1910. 

 1909. 



Farms 



19 



5 



Acres 



32 



4 



Yields 

 per acre 

 (quarts) 



2,330 

 6,000 



Incomes 

 per acre 



$145-94 

 274.92 



Price 

 per quart 



$.0626 

 .0458 



The growers were united in saying that the crop of 19 10 was only about 

 one half as large as usual, because of a severe frost when the plants were 

 in bloom. 



THE BLACK CURRANT 



There are a few patches of black currants in New York State. The 

 fruit does not seem to be very popular, probably because of its peculiar 

 flavor. Professor Budd | states that in the case of the variety Black 

 Naples this peculiar flavor, which is confined to the skin, can be partially 

 or wholly removed by scalding the berries in boiling water. At present 

 the black currant is used mostly for making jam and jelly. 



*'• Bush Fruits," by F. W. Card, p. 353. 



t " Bush Fruits," by W. T. Macoun, Bulletin s6, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, p. 9. 



j Bulletin 16, Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, p. 364. 



