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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



to hang over and touch the ground, it 

 always threw out roots in plenty, like 

 a prostrate bramble-cane; and I had 

 observed also that if a currant-tree 

 had been planted too deep, it never 

 perished through the removal of its 

 roots from the action of the atmo- 

 sphere, because it soon made a fresh 

 -wig of roots from the old stem near 

 the surface. So in the autumn I made 

 a lot of cuttings, using wood two or 

 three years old for the purpose, and 

 making them into miniature trees at 

 once, with stems a foot long, and 

 three or four main forks cut to three 

 or four inches. These I put in at 

 eighteen inches apart in the kitchen- 

 garden, and the next season they 

 grew with almost the same vigour 

 as if they had been plants instead of 

 cuttings. They actually bore a crop ; 

 and dad said, when he saw them, that 

 it was as bad as making a child carry 

 a baby (which he always thought a 

 cruel proceeding on the part of 

 parents), and that I ought to have 

 nipped out every bunch of bloom, and 

 not have allowed a single berry to be 

 formed — advice which experience 

 soon told me was as sound as my old 

 friend's lesson on pruning. All I did 

 with them was to gather the few 

 bunches that ripened, and allow them 

 to grow as they pleased. They made 

 plenty of nice wood, and were pruned 

 in the autumn according to the rule 

 that had been given me before. In the 

 meantime the plantation had been 

 pruned as well as we could prune 

 such a confusion, and the bearbine had 

 been kept in check by the use of the 

 hoe, and so in due time winter came 

 again. 



It was now my turn to be impor- 

 tant. Says I, " Let's make a bonfire 

 of the old currant-trees, trench the 

 ground, and plant my young trees in 

 place of them." "Yes," says dad, 

 "and go without currants for seven 

 years." " Better be without them 

 for ever," says I, " than have such a 

 mess as that quarter is, and will 

 always be, till you set fire to it. But 

 my trees will do something next 

 year." "Yes," says dad, "if you 

 leave them alone, and give them a 

 mulch of dung, they'll make some 

 nice wood." 1 saw which way the cat 



jumped, and thought if I could not 

 succeed by arguing, I might by bor- 

 ing, and I did bore till I got permis- 

 sion to try my luck. Down, or rather 

 up, came the old trees ; they were 

 soon submitted to a fiery ordeal, and 

 succumbed to it. The ground was 

 trenched, manured, and my young 

 trees planted in their stead. But 

 here's the rub: they produced a very 

 fair crop the next season ; nothing, of 

 course, like the supply we had been 

 used to, but more than anybody ex- 

 pected ; and thus I learnt my second 

 lesson — that currant-trees may be got 

 into fruit quickly from cuttings by 

 taking cuttings of wood two or three 

 years old, whereas by using young 

 wood you make sure of waiting much 

 longer. I have practised this system 

 ever since, usiDg wood of two, three, 

 or four years old, and always obtain- 

 ing good trees thereby, with the ad- 

 vantage of moderate crops of fruit in 

 the second season of the growth of 

 the trees. 



I was not long in discovering that 

 red and white currant-trees pay well 

 for fancy culture ; and at the present 

 day I know of nothing more worthy 

 of attention in gardening than the 

 production of handsome standard and 

 pyramid currant-trees. I knowseveral 

 gardens where they cannot get fruit 

 from bushes, but get abundance from 

 standards. To make a standard, you 

 need strong young shoots for cut- 

 tings ; these are disbudded below to 

 within four buds of the top. You 

 let the top bud go, and train the shoot 

 upright ; all the other shoots are 

 pinched in, and kept very short. Five 

 feet is a good height at which to form 

 the head, and the only direction I 

 need give for it is to advise that the 

 three or four shoots which are to be 

 the foundation of the head are to be 

 very slightly pruned in the first sea- 

 son, the object at that stage being to 

 get wood, and not fruit. The next 

 year these will produce abundance of 

 side-shoots, which are to be pinched 

 back, and thenceforward there will 

 be abundanceoffruit,for wherever you 

 pinch to two or three leaves, bunches 

 of blossom buds will form, and in due 

 time the heads will be hung with fruit 

 all round, and all who see them will 



