HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 389 



spring work the mulching in and cultivate well, keeping the 

 ground clean till the fruit is gathered. Children do not like to 

 pick gooseberries as well as they do strawberries. They say 

 they have ''prickles" on. They are right, but they can gen- 

 erally be hired to pick them for one and one-half or two 

 cents per quart. How can this fruit be used to the best advan- 

 tage? Sell them for from ten to fifteen cents per quart. They 

 are good stewed green for sauce; made into pie; good enough for 

 a "Daniel," provided the sugar bucket has been patronized. 

 They are good canned for winter use and are excellent appetizers 

 along toward spring. They also make as good wine as currants. 

 Preserved they satisfy most appetites. They are more profitable 

 to grow than corn. The farmer gets 25 cents for a bushel 

 of corn while upon the same ground he can produce 3 bushels 

 of gooseberries, worth, at 10 cents a quart, $9.60, which gives 

 the producer $9.35 more than he could get out of corn. There 

 are also profits in growing currants. The best way to sell them is 

 by weight, 40 pounds to a bushel, picked with stems. For mar- 

 ket always pick them stems and all. Where they can not be 

 sold thus, of course the best way is to sell in quart boxes like 

 strawberries. 



PRESERVING CURRANTS. 



Currants like gooseberries will not bear well on old wood, so 

 it is best to cut out all the old wood after they have borne two or 

 three crops. This had better be done as soon as the leaves are 

 ripe in summer or early autumn. Cut close to the ground leav- 

 ing only wood not more than three years old, mostly one and 

 two years old. Some trimming can be done every year after 

 once begun, and no old wood allowed at any time to accu- 

 mulate in the bushes. Thorough, clean cultivation, from early 

 spring till July, followed with a heavy coat of manure in July 

 or August, with ashes in the spring sown broadcast, will pro- 

 duce the best crop. 



Gooseberries and currants have their enemies. Worms which 

 defoliate the bushes must be poisoned with white hellebore or 

 London purple. If the worms come on early a solution of one- 

 fourth pound of London purple to fifty gallons of water sprayed 

 over the bushes will be sufficient to destroy them. This must 

 not be applied after the fruit has attained considerable size; bub 

 should be immediately after the fruit is picked. Should they be- 



