SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 429 



CURRANTS. 



Black Currants. — Benj. G. Smith of Cambridge, Mass., in a letter to 

 Mr. Wm. Falconer, speaks the following good word for black currants : 



I consider black currants among our most valuable small fruits, and it is a 

 matter of surprise to me that our American people do not more generally 

 appreciate them. For the past ten or fifteen years I have cultivated Black 

 Naples, which I consider most satisfactory, although I have experimented 

 with other kinds. Like other currants, it requires a deep, rich soil and 

 abundant manure. I use cow manure annually and liberally. It requires 

 little pruning except occasionally to cut out old wood. It is entirely free 

 from injurious insects — the currant worm has never troubled it in my 

 grounds. It has never failed to bear an abundant crop. We have made from 

 them a very acceptable wine, valuable medicinally, especially for inflamma- 

 tion of the throat. The fruit is equally good for jam or jelly. It is six or 

 seven years since we made the last wine. It improves by age. 



Raising Currant Bushes. — An experienced writer says that to succeed 

 well with currant and gooseberry cuttings they must be taken off and set in 

 August or early in September, so that the natural warmth of the soil, before 

 it is chilled by the cooler weather of autumn, may operate as bottom heat. 

 This, he says, is the real secret of success. The shoots of the present year's 

 growth are to be cut six or eight inches long, placed vertically in compacted 

 soil, with an inch at the top exposed. The objection to spring planting is 

 the coldness of the earth. The soil cannot be made too rich. He recom- 

 mends seventy-five tons of well rotted manure to the acre, or at that rate for 

 smaller grounds. He has set out several thousand bushels lately, in rows 

 seven feet apart, and four feet in the rows, so as to allow cultivation both 

 ways, lessen the labor, keep the ground clean, and obtain larger and finer 

 fruit. 



APPLES. 



Ashes for Apples. — Mr. 0. B. Hadwenis reported by the Massachusetts 

 Ploughman as having proved the value of this application, and as favoring 

 top-dressing and turf instead of bare surface frequently plowed. 



He puts the matter in this way : My orchards cover some twenty acres. 

 One of a little less than two acres has been kept under the plow and highly 

 enriched ever since the seeds were planted in the autumn of 1843, to the 

 piesent time. Those trees have grown to be very large, though I have taken 

 pains to keep them in hand by heading in ; but some of them have passed 

 maturity and are going to their decay. But trees of the same kind that 

 were set in grass land, well cultivated for the first few years, but after the 

 first ten years, perhaps, were only cultivated occasionally, and some of them 

 not at all, have done better. This has been brought about by an annual 

 and biennial top-dressing. The best top-dressing I have applied to the apple 

 is wood ashes and bone. Stable manure seems to promote growth rather 

 than fruit-bearing; but bone and ashes applied together seem to develop the 



