400 ANNUAL KEPORT. 



method of propagation, which is by ripe wood cutting. In the 

 fall, after the bushes have shed their leaves, make your cuttings 

 from the new wood; cut the pieces to six or eight inches long, 

 square on the butts, slant on the top; tie in bunches and plant as 

 soon as the ground can be got ready. It must not be understood 

 as being absolutely necessary to plant cuttings in the fall, but we 

 find that the most desirable results are attained by this plan. If 

 the planting is to be delayed till spring the cuttings must be 

 made in the fall and buried until ground can be worked in spring 

 and planting done as early as possible. 



If a large lot is to be planted, ground should be well plowed 

 and harrowed, and straight furrows drawn three feet apart. The 

 cuttings are then placed on the land side of the furrow, the soil 

 well packed down around the butts of the cuttings, and the rest 

 may be loosely worked in, remembering to so place the cuttings 

 that two eyes, or buds, are left above ground; now a covering of 

 straw or coarse manure, and the job is done till spring. By this 

 system of fall planting the cuttings will all be callous and some 

 make roots before winter, and when spring comes they are in the 

 best possible condition to make good roots, which they will com- 

 mence to do as soon as the ground thaws out. I will here say 

 that in preparing the cuttings the buds are all left on, as it is 

 more generally conceded that it is best to grow the currant in 

 the stool form, and the buds being all left on will produce in 

 after years a good supply of suckers to take the place of the old 

 wood and those stems destroyed by borers. 



If anyone wishes to grow the currant in tree form, in prepar- 

 ing the cuttings cut off all the buds except the two uppermost, 

 and allow only one of these to grow, and then cut and shape the 

 bush to your own liking. Fine, large fruit can be grown by 

 this system, but if the borer gets into your one-stem bush that 

 whole bush is doomed, and an ugly gap made in the row. Ee- 

 turning to our bed of straw-covered plants. When spring has 

 advanced three or four weeks, we rake the straw from each alter- 

 nate row, and run through with cultivator, rake the straw from 

 the other rows, and cultivate the whole patch, leaving the straw 

 on the ground all summer. The cultivating may be repeated 

 whenever necessary. By this process of propagation fine plants, 

 are grown, with a loss of perhaps five per cent. 



We should have for the main bed a good loam soil, rich, deeply 

 plowed, and well harrowed. If the land is so full of manure that 

 a furrow cannot be plowed, then mark with a six-foot marker. 



