THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



271 



in the month of February or by the 

 middle of March at latest, and place 

 them in a gentle heat. When the 

 plants are up, thin out the tufts and 

 pot a lot of each, setting the little 

 plants about an inch apart all over. 

 Such kinds as sorghums, etc., must be 

 potted singly. Grow them on in 

 frames, giving plenty of air, till the 

 end of April ; then begin to plant 

 them out. The more tender kinds, 

 such as Indian corn, ought not to be 

 planted out till the middle of May, 

 and they require a rich deep soil, and 

 must have regular watering till esta- 

 lished. If this is too much trouble, 

 sow them on the open border and 



about rock work where wanted, the 

 last week in April, and take your 

 chance. Most of them will flower the 

 same season, but not so finely as from 

 plants got forward in pots by early 

 sowing. The seeds of Indian corn 

 should be sown five inches deep when 

 sown in the open ground. 



To preserve grasses for winter bou- 

 quets it is necessary, first, to cut them 

 when just coming into flower — that i3 

 to say, when the pollen is first visible 

 and before any seeds are formed. Dry 

 them by sticking the stems into boxes 

 of sand, and put them away where 

 they will not get smothered with dust. 

 Shibley Hibbebd. 



CULTIVATION OF THE CURRANT. 



I was taught to prune currant-trees 

 at twelve years of age, and for eigkt- 

 and-twenty years have followed the 

 directions then given me by an honest 

 old countryman, who used also to teach 

 me how to coax bees into a hive by 

 first rubbing the inside with penny- 

 royal, lemon thyme, and sweet mar- 

 joram, a process which afterwards 

 proved, without Dr. Cumming'shelp, 

 to be labour thrown away. But his 

 mode of pruning currant-trees was 

 right for that day, and right for ever. 

 The currant is just the same now as 

 it was then, and no doubt will con- 

 tinue the same until by successive 

 improvements in " the struggle for 

 existence" it changes into something 

 too good " for human nature's daily 

 food." My old friend said to me, 

 "Look here, lad ; just take the branch 

 in your left hand, and, mind ye, red 

 and white currants are pruned the 

 same way : well, take the branch in 

 your left hand, and your knife so" 

 (turning the blade upwards), " in the 

 right ; and cut the shoot away so as 

 to leave only two or three joint3 from 

 the old wood. But blacks you do 

 another way : you take the branch at 

 the tip, and cut away about a fourth 

 part of it, as you see these bear all 

 the way up ; but reds and whites only 

 bear on the old wood, or very close to 

 the old wood." And I went on prun- 



ing them as thus directed without 

 much more thought about the matter, 

 till at last it happened that my father 

 took an old garden in which there was 

 a grand plantation of currant-trees 

 that had not been pruned at all for 

 about ten years. What a remarkable 

 sight was that plantation ! The cur- 

 rant-trees were like neglected osiers, 

 consisting of an almost impenetrable 

 mass of long rods eight to ten feet 

 high, which all the summer were 

 beautifully wreathed with the suffo- 

 cating growth of bearbine, with its 

 elegant leaves and lovely snow-white 

 flowers. Yet, in spite of all this neg- 

 lect, they bore enormously ; and when 

 the fruit was ripe, the glow of colour 

 was to me the grandest sight I had 

 then ever seen in the way of a display. 

 My dad often said that to clear the 

 ground and reduce the trees to decent 

 proportions, so that to get amongst 

 them would not be like assailing a 

 tropical junglefor thefirst time, would 

 require the sacrifice of at least one 

 year's crop, and then it would be a 

 poor job, for the bearbine would grow 

 faster than we could kill it. I got 

 into my head a whim for attempting 

 to reform the plantation ; and after 

 quietly persevering for months, I got 

 permission to do as I pleased. Now, 

 I had noticed that if a branch of a 

 currant-tree got partly broken, so as 



