28" STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES 

 BY ME. EDWARD HAWLEY OF FENNVILLE. 



Few persons, eveu among our professional horticulturists, fully realize 

 the vast strides that have been taken during the past quarter century in 

 the demand for good fruit on the part of the consumer and in the efforts 

 on the part of the producer to keep pace with that demand. It seems but 

 a few years since the only fruit universally met with in our smaller mark- 

 ets was the apple. Fruits now considered indispensable — pears, peaches, 

 plums, quinces, and grapes — were then produced in limited quantities 

 and only in specially favored localities, and were to be found on sale in 

 none but the large markets. Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries 

 were known only as wild fruit, and the currant and gooseberry were con- 

 fined to a few sorry-looking bushes in a secluded corner of the farmer's 

 ^ gai'den " — that little patch of a quarter of an acre or so, securely' fenced 

 with pickets, wherefrom the farmer's table was supposed to be supplied 

 with the necessary vegetable diet. In those good old days, " befo' de 

 wah ■', if a man should have announced an intention to plant currants 

 and gooseberries by the acre, expecting to find a market for the fruit, he 

 w^ould have been promptly placed on the list of cranks, and as a matter 

 of fact commercial growers of these fruits were not to be found except 

 in the immediate vicinity of the large cities. How changed these things 

 are now we all know. Large farms are entii^^ly devoted to small-fruit 

 culture, and the desi)ised currant and goosebei'i'y of a former generation 

 are now taking a front rank among the indispensable fruits, and. not- 

 withstanding the extensive plantings of the past few years, the supply 

 has not yet caught up with the rapidly incri^asing demand. And allow 

 me to state here that the fear of overproduction of good fruit of an}' kind 

 is something no grower need vex his mind about. It is one of those 

 things that possibly can, but probably never will, be done. The writer 

 well remembers some forty-odd years ago of choice Spitzenburg apples 

 selling in New York city at retail for one dollar per barrel. The apples 

 came by way of the Erie canal from western New York, and the cost of 

 barrels, commission, and some 300 miles of freightage reduced the net 

 price to the producer to less than 50 cents per barrel. Yet the profits 

 were considered in those days sufficient to warrant the extensive planting 

 of new orchards throughout that portion of the state, and the wiseacres 

 then, as now, foretold the dire results that were sure to follow. Then, as 

 now, their prophesies came to naught. The average price of good apples 

 has continued to advance from that day to the present time. Let our 

 fruitgrowers ponder well the lesson. 



The currant and gooseberry are by no means fastidious as to soil or 

 location. Of course, the land should be wel^l drained; if not naturally, 

 then by underdrainage. Aii- drainage is of minor inqiortance, as these 

 fruits are seldom- injured by extreme cold. I know of no fruit that 

 responds quicker to heavy dressings of manure. ^Vn amount of fertility 

 that would kill a peach orchard will not injure the currant oi' gooseberry,, 

 but will greatly increase the size and quantity of the fruit. 



