CURRANTS BY THE MARKET GARDENER. 129 



to turn gray again with small black spots. When the bark gets 

 smooth and black I think it is time to cut it out. Every time I go 

 through in September, fixing them up for winter, I cut out all the 

 suckers that have been missed; and sometimes I pull them up in 

 the spring, then in September thin out all that are sickly, if it takes 

 every one out of the hill, but if you can save three, four or five of the 

 strongest, straightest canes that have good terminal buds, that 

 have grown so strong that they will show green, smooth bark in- 

 stead of gray bark, and cut out enough of the oldest wood to keep 

 the balance in good condition, as the gentleman says, you will not 

 live long enough to see the plantation run out. If I was growing a 

 plantation I would not put them eight feet apart; I would rather 

 put them six feet. I have some six years old six feet apart, and we 

 can just barely get through. I keep them thinned down so they 

 will not crowd at six feet. I planted two acres last year and planted 

 them six feet apart, and I am in hopes they will not grow big 

 enough so we will have to cut out in order to get between them. 

 Currants want manure, I think somebody said, once in two or three 

 years. I would say every year. I go through and do this trimming 

 in August or September, but after we have got through with the 

 weeds, I go through about the middle of August and clean out the 

 old wood, clean out the suckers, then tie up the bushes in a bunch 

 with string, and then there is a chance to get close to the hill to 

 loosen up the soil with a spading fork and to manure the grounds 

 not just around the hill, but the whole surface. I put wood ashes 

 on mine, but as much as a peck to a bushel is too much; but I would 

 say about two quarts scattered around it. I know a lot of people 

 who mulch and who do no trimming for three or four years, then 

 they clean up their currant bushes; and then they have to wait 

 two or three years before they get a crop of currants. I apply the 

 manure after I get through trimming and cleaning out in August 

 or September. I leave it on top of the ground and do not do any 

 cultivating until after the frost is out. I prefer to get it on the 

 ground before it freezes. I have sometimes put it on after the snow 

 came. 



Mr. L. R. Moyer: What would you do for the currant borer? 



Mr. C. L. Smith: I always keep lots of chickens. I take the nests 

 of the setting hens out of the chicken coop and carry them out in 

 the currant bushes, and let them hatch the young chickens there 

 and stay there, and I have never had any trouble with insects. But 

 as I am never troubled with insects that is a question on which I 

 can give no positive answer. 



Mr. Yahnke: I had just the opposite experience. My chickens 

 will hatch in the currants, and I have a currant patch close to the 

 chicken yard, and if the currant worms would eat chickens I would 

 not have a chicken left. (Uproarious laughter.) 



Mr. T. T. Smith: I would like to have Mr. Smith tell us how many 

 chickens it would require to keep an acre of currants clean? 



Mr, C. L. Smith: I said that is a question I could not answer. I 

 have never had any experience with worms. I have a good planta 

 tion of currants eight years old, but I have never seen a sign of a 



