550 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



Careless, and Overseer ; Reds—* Beauty, Clayson, Conquering Hero, Dan's 

 Mistake, and * London ; Yellows — * Catherina, Great "Western, and Levels; 

 Greens — * Drill, Stock-well, and Thumper. Those with an asterisk are best. 



Currants. 



Except in pruning, everything we have said about Gooseberries in regard to 

 their eultiv^ation will apply to Currants. However, it may be as well to say 

 that all Currants will thrive on northern or eastern aspects where but little 

 sun reaches them. ]>lack Currants es[)ecially do best on a border at the 

 north or east side of a wall, although they will grow anywhere. Southern 

 cultivators had better note, however, that warm soils and sunny aspects are 

 the reverse of favourable to any of these fruits ; and northerners may be 

 glad to know that ])laces too cold or damp for other fruits are just the best 

 position possible for them. 



In the matter of pruning, we prefer to keep the old branches of Red and 

 "White Currants well furnished with spurs, and to depend on these. To cause 

 spurs to form freely, it is well to cut the annual shoots half-way back at each 

 annual pruning while the bushes are young and in training. We prefer hav- 

 ing them globe-shaped, for the same reason that we prefer Gooseberries to be 

 so trained. After the bushes are large, pruning consists in cutting back all 

 aniuial shoots to one or two eyes, but it is better still to pinch them to that 

 while they are young. On good soil, bushes should ultimately attain from G 

 to 8 feet in height ; and bushes this size, when well furnished with spurs, 

 generally bear a great quantity of valuable fruit. When birds are troublesome 

 it may be necessary to protect the fruit by means of old herring-nets, which 

 are to be had very cheaply. When the bushes are on borders beside walls 

 this is easily done ; otherwise, it may be necessary to put up a railing all round 

 the quarter on which they grow to support the net. A few long poles in the 

 centre will keep the net clear of the bushes. Where birds destroy the buds in 

 winter and spring, pruning should be deferred until the bushes begin to 

 grow. To afford protection, the bushes should be liberally dusted in winter 

 with a mixture of lime and soot. 



Red Currants are very suitable for covering north or east walls. Four, six, 

 or eight cordon trees are best for this purpose. 



Black Currants 

 must be pruned on a different principle, for the best of the fruit is borne on 

 the preceding year's shoots, so pruning must be done in the same way as 

 recommended for Morellos. No spurring in should be practised, but in its 

 place a continual cutting back of old wood, and a continual encouragement of 

 young. Learn the principle on which they should be pruned, and the 

 practice will become easy. Crowding should be avoided, for crowding means 

 small fruit, and small fruit is a great trouble to gather, and very inferior 

 after it is gathered. Amateurs who are first-class pruners of Gooseberries, in 

 their own opinion, generally consider the proper pruning of Black Currants 

 an inscrutable mystery, and so leave them alone. Yet Gooseberry and Black 

 Currant bushes should be treated very much alike, and that means that 

 annually a thinning out in a regular manner should be given to each. It is 

 bad pruning indeed that is not better than no pruning, for the letting in of 

 air and sun works a wonderful improvement on these fruits, and the thinning- 

 out causes greater vigour in the shoots left. For covering north walls which 

 are under 8 feet in height, Black Currant bushes are admirably adapted. In 



