30 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



knife severely, promote the growth of 

 the trees in the form of diffuse pyra- 

 mids, as that admits air most freely 

 amongst the foliage, and allows of a 

 large extent of bearing wood. 



A Quicker Method of Baising 

 Currant-trees. — Young wood of the 

 preceding summer undoubtedly makes 

 the best trees, but where it is an ob- 

 ject to get them into bearing quickly, 



chosen that each rod had on It a head 

 ready formed. They were prepared 

 with disbudded stems, fifteen inches 

 long, and three or four shoots placed 

 atequal distances, and were all planted 

 in November in a piece of rich sandy 

 loam. They were not allowed to bear 

 the first season, though they would 

 have done so, for they were of course 

 loaded with fruit-buds. But the 



A. Clusters of Fruit-buds. B. Pruning the young shoots. 



wood of two or three, or even four, 

 years old may be used. We have 

 now a fine plantation of red currants 

 that were all struck from rods as thick 

 as a carpenter's pencil. They were 

 selected from some old bushes that 

 had to be destroyed, because they had 

 not been pruned for ten years, and 

 had become so infested with bearbine 

 that it was impossible to restore them 

 to decency, though, in spite of their 

 wretched appearance, they bore tre- 

 mendously. The cuttings were so 



second season they bore well, and 

 made a vigorous growth, and there 

 was a saving as to their bearing capa- 

 biUties of two years. 



Currants as Espaliers. — Black 

 currants serve very well to train to 

 wires or fences, and make a good 

 fence to divide the kitchen from the 

 flower garden, as they retain their 

 leaves till very late in the season, and 

 may be allowed to grow rather thick, 

 without injuring their fruitfulness. 

 Eed and white currants do not serve 



