THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



29 



clays tliese fruits get infested witli I 

 moss, and make muck watery spray, 

 so that it is only vrUen t;vo hot seasons 

 follow consecutively that they make 

 a good return of fruit. But the cold- 

 est clay may be improved by draining, 

 and tempering its stubbornness by 

 dressings of sand and dung, and by 

 one way or another there is no reason 

 why any garden in the kingdom should 

 lack these essentials to the dessert. 



Propagation. — We strongly ob- 

 ject to the use of layers and suckers, 

 as lazy methods which produce bad 

 plants. There is nothing easier in 

 horticultural practice than striking 

 cuttings of currant trees. Choose 

 straight, plump, hard young shoots ; 

 cut them off near to the old wood ; 

 remove all the buds from the base and 

 for six inches upwards, so as to pre- 

 vent the growth of suckers and 

 branches near the ground ; cut away a 

 few inches from the top, so as to insiare 

 growth at top from a strong bud. 

 When prepared, the cuttings should 

 be a foot long, and but five or 

 sis buds at the top onlj", none at the 

 bottom. Plant these cuttings firmly 

 in rows eighteen inches apart, the 

 cuttings nine inches apart in the 

 rows, any time fi'om November to the 

 end of February. We have put them 

 in in April, and had them root well, 

 but delays are dangerous ; they ought 

 always to be in their places by the 

 end of January at least. Let them 

 grow as they like the first year, and 

 in tlie autumn prune back all the 

 branches to five eyes each. The next 

 autumn prune back again, so as to 

 retain three or four well-placed main 

 shoots, which will form the skeleton 

 of the future tree. Plant them out 

 two and a-half feet apart, in rows five 

 feet asunder, in well manured soil, 

 and the nest autumn prune for bear- 

 ing. The autumn following every 

 ether tree must be taken ou.t ; this 

 will leave them five feet apart every 

 way, which is none too much room. 

 In this final planting, throw out all 

 ugly and irregular bushes, and replace 

 them with the best of those removed 

 to make room. 



Prcning Hed and White Cue- 

 ba:sts. — This is easy enough. It con- 

 sists in simply cutting away com- 



pletely all ill-placed shoots that cross 

 the head, and cutting back all other 

 young wood to two or three eyes from 

 the growth of the preceding year. 

 The fruit-buds are formed in clusters 

 on the old wood, and at the base of 

 the small slender side-shoots which 

 arise on the main branches. In case 

 of blanks and gaps in the head of the 

 tree, a shoot arising lower down may 

 often be turned to account to fill it 

 up, hence it is as well at the first 

 pruning to leave a few surplus shoots 

 below the forks of those intended to 

 form the head, and these can be kept 

 stopped back so as to be available in 

 case of need, as wherever there is a 

 bud on' the base of a shoot, strong 

 shoots will always be formed in the 

 growing season. But when a well- 

 formed head is secured, all the shoots 

 below it may be cut clean away, so as 

 to leave a foot to eighteen inches of 

 clear stem. 



During summer it is as necessary 

 to practise the pinching system of 

 pruning with red and white currants 

 as with pears, apples, and plums The 

 gain is immense in the formation of 

 fruit-buds and the furnishing of the 

 j'oung tree, but when they get to a 

 good size, they bear so abundantly 

 that there is nothing gained by sum- 

 mer pinching. From the first any 

 brancli that starts up in the centre 

 should be cut back to within three or 

 four buds of the base, to be removed 

 altogether if needful at the autumn 

 pruning. At the beginning of July, 

 all the small shoots that grow out 

 from among the fruit-buds should be 

 cut back to within three or four inches 

 of the base, and all the well-placed 

 shocts are to be stopped by nipping 

 out the point. 



Prtming the Ulaclc Currant is a 

 more simple matter still, for it may 

 almost be said that the black currant 

 should not be pruned at all. All that 

 is needful with these is to go over 

 them once in the winter, and cut 

 away to the base all ill-placed shoots, 

 and'to shortenback those that threaten 

 to monopolize the sap, and for the rest 

 let the trees grow as they please. Still 

 the grower should have an eye to 

 their general shape and contour, and 

 as far as is possible without using the 



