IRISH GARDENING 



57- 



soil may be taken from the border in whicli the 

 plants have been growing-. This is better than 

 using new heavy loam, as is sometimes done. 

 The roots require a compost in which they can 

 ramify freelv. Pot moderately firm, using clean, 

 well-drained pots. Arrange the plants in a 

 frame or a cool greenhouse near the glass. ^In 

 no case place them in a heated structure. The 

 violet is impatient of coddling. Water the 

 plants with care, and give them abundance of 

 air and light. As the pots become filled with 

 roots, a pinch of some approved fertiliser will 

 be found beneficial. Never attempt to propagate 

 from an unhealthy stock. The violet disease 

 is incurable, all plants attacked by it should be 

 burnt, and the new plants grown on entirely 

 fresh soil. 



Varieties are numerous, a few of the best 

 are doubles — Marie Louise, lavender blue ; 

 Mrs. J. J. Astor, rosy-heliotrope ; Lady 

 Hume Campbell, rich blue ; Comte Brazza, 

 pure white ; Singles, California, violet-purple ; 

 La France, metallic-blue; Princess of Wales, blue, 

 very large flowers, long foot-stalks ; White Czar, 

 snow-white, very large. The three best for 

 general cultivation I have found to be Marie 

 Louise, Princess ot Wales, and Comte Brazza. 



Pruning Small Fruit. 



By Fred. W. Ham.monh. 



THERE is so much diff'erence in the method 

 to be employed in pruning red and white 

 currants on the one hand and black on 

 the other that they must be dealt with entirely 

 separately, and I shall consider in the first place 

 the former. 



Following the principle I enunciated in the 

 preceding articles, the first thing to consider is — 

 On what class of wood is the most and best fruit 

 borne in the case of red and white currants ? A 

 careful study will reveal that it is on spurs on 

 all the wood from two years old and upwards, 

 but tliat the greatest quantity is to be found 

 growing from the older spurs, five to ten years 

 old, perhaps more. Another fact we shall notice 

 is that clustered at the base of all the lateral 

 shoots up the limbs of the tree are to be found 

 several fruit buds. 



The system which is universally adopted is to 

 spur in all these laterals except where they are 

 required for filling space in the natural exten- 



sion ot the tree. It is practically the same 

 system that one adopts with the vine, except 

 that one has a number of " rods " instead of a 

 single one. There is much to be said for it — 

 that a considerable amount of good-sized fruit 

 can be grown, that the fruit has probably the 

 best possible chance to get well coloured and 

 ripened, and also that the shape of the tree is 

 always under control and lends itself to exten- 

 sion almost indefinitely without becoming un- 

 manageable. Such reasons are weighty enough 

 to outweigh any consideration which may arise, 

 that the system is absolutely unnatural and 

 opposed to all the natural growth and habit of 

 the tree. Before particularly describing the 

 method it will be best to point out the aim- that 

 is, to train the tree in a cup shape, so that all 

 the branches are equally exposed to light and 

 air, and to continually extend the branches and 

 furnish new ones as the widening spaces between 

 them permit. 



Re/J currants are the easiest of the bush fruits 

 to strike from cuttings, and generally make very 

 good trees at one year old furnished with three 

 or four shoots twelve to eighteen inches long. 

 At the first pruning these should be shortened 

 to about four to five inches, cutting always to 

 a bud pointing outwards. 



The following season these shoots will have 

 probably made two or three shoots each stronger 

 than those of the previous year, one from the 

 terminal bud following the direction of the shoot 

 called the leader, and one or two laterals. 



Most of these laterals must be cut to within 

 about half an inch of the base — that is, spurred 

 in —except where any one will fill a blank space 

 between the previous year's shoots. Such 

 shoot, as well as the leaders, should be 

 shortened, roughly, to about a third of the 

 length. 



The next year several more shoots will be 

 produced, the leaders, two or three on laterals, 

 the previous year's growth, and some from the 

 spurs on the year older wood. 



The leaders should again be shortened, and 

 the laterals spurred in, unless required to make 

 a new branch, in the same way, care being taken 

 to spur in as close as possible without cutting 

 away the fruit buds round the base of the shoot. 



Beyond the necessity of cutting to an outward 

 bud, and shortening them sufticiently, there is 

 not much to consider with regard to the leaders; 

 but whenever there is sufficient space, one of 



