THE ELORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



pronounce them as handsome as they 

 are useful. The after-pruning will 

 consist in cutting back, first to pre- 

 serve the contour and a rather open 

 centre, and secondly to secure fruit. 

 The closer you prune back to the 

 junction of the wood of the year with 

 the old wood, the finer and the fewer 

 will be the bunches. 



To form pyramids, very nearly 

 the same treatment will be necessary. 

 Instead of taking up a straight stem, 

 you must secure plenty of wood right 

 and left, within nine inches of the 

 ground, and trust to the future to 

 carry the tree higher. Train out the 

 first shoots by means of a few stakes, 

 and at the winter pruning cut them 

 back a third or half their length, and 

 then on that foundation keep adding 

 with every season's growth another 

 and another tier of branches, and in 

 due time you may train your tree to 

 a sharp point, from whence the out- 

 line will extend in regular oblique 

 lines to the ground. If you do not 

 secure the lower furniture first, you 

 may never get it at all. That is always 

 the matter of first importance in 

 forming a pyramid. 



Perhaps it may be well to say that 

 my old friend who taught me how to 

 prune currant-trees was no horticul- 

 tural prophet, or he would have said, 

 " The day's coming when the knife 

 will be superseded by the thumb nail ; 

 where we now cut and get one bunch, 

 posterity will pinch and get two." 



To keep your currant-bushes close 

 and trim and fruitful, you will find 

 summer pinching a hundred times 

 better than winter pruning; but if 

 the pinching has not been done, 

 follow the rule to cut close in 

 all the red and white kinds, and 

 moderately shorten the shoots of the 

 black kinds, taking care also to thin 

 out, by cutting to the base all the 

 shoots of any of the kinds that tend 

 to check and crowd the trees, so that 

 they may have fair sunlight all 

 through, and produce short, stout 

 wood, instead of weak watery sprigs. 



The selection of varieties is a 

 matter of the first importance — of far 

 more importance, indeed, than the 

 quality of the soil — for the best kinds 

 are as accommodating as the com- 



monest, in regard to the staple in 

 which they may be grown, though it 

 need not be said that a good soil is 

 better than a bad one. 



Let us then take the three kinds, 

 beginning with the Red. In this 

 class the best variety known is Wil- 

 mot's Long Bunched Red, which gives 

 bunches of great length. I once 

 grew a bunch seven inches long — 

 with large handsome berries, coloured 

 a fine deep red. The flavour of this 

 currant is excellent. It is sufficiently 

 sweet to suit most palates, and suffi- 

 ciently sour to be described as 

 sprightly, yet it is not so acid as to 

 cause the face of the person partaking 

 of it to screw up into ridiculous out- 

 lines, as must happen in the eating of 

 some of the more acid kinds. I re- 

 commend this for real service as 

 combining beauty with good quality 

 and productiveness. Next in point 

 of quality stands Raby Castle, which 

 does not produce such large bunches, 

 but the berries are large, the colour 

 is beautiful, the flavour more acid 

 than the Long Bunched, and the fruit 

 ripens later and hangs longer than 

 that of any other variety. The tree 

 is, moreover, highly productive, and 

 may be grown to form very handsome 

 standards. As there are not many 

 sorts to be had, all who care to make 

 a feature of currants, whether for the 

 kitchen or the dessert, or both, should 

 take all the good ones that can be 

 had. Supposing, then, that the two 

 named above are determined on — and 

 the difference between them is not 

 great, the further selection will be for 

 particular purposes. Which, then, 

 is the best variety for that important 

 domestic operation, jam-making ? I 

 think La Fertile will bear away the 

 palm for superiority in this respect, 

 but those fine varieties Cherry and 

 Champagne make excellent jam and 

 jelly, because of their agreeable acidity 

 and pulpiness. La Fertile produces 

 a very large berry of a fine red colour, 

 and it is the most fruitful of all known 

 varieties that possess really good 

 qualities. This, too, is a capital 

 market sort, because of the quantity 

 and the beauty of the fruit, and it is 

 thoroughly hardy, and never suffers 

 from spring frosts. Champagne is in 



