CURRANTS 1385 



clover seed per acre or twenty-five pounds vetch, or about one 

 bushel of oats or barley. Mixtures of the seed are sometimes used 

 to advantage. A hoed crop may be grown between the plants the 

 tirst year. 



Systematic pruning is essential. The best fruit is borne at the 

 base of one-year-old shoots and on one-year-old spurs which de- 

 velop from the two- and three-year-old wood. Most of the wood 

 over three years old should be cut out and only enough of the 

 yearling wood left to maintain a yearly supply of the younger 

 wood. From five to eight canes are usually sufficient per bush. 

 Most bushes are left too thick. An upright, yet open, habit should 

 be encouraged. It is usually unnecessary to head back the new 

 canes except those making a long, irregular growth, but it is often 

 an advantage to cut back very vigorous shoots. Pruning may be 

 done any time after the leaves have dropped up to the time growth 

 starts in the spring. The fruit of black currants is borne on wood 

 of the previous year. At time of setting, the tops and roots are 

 usually shortened back from one-third to one-half, depending on 

 the amount of growth. 



SPRAYING 



Disease or insect pests are to be expected each year. Fortu- 

 nately, both may often be treated at one application by using the 

 proper materials. The bushes should be sprayed with a combined 

 insecticide and fungicide soon after the fruit begins to swell, and 

 again with a fungicide after the fruit has been harvested. 



INSECTS 

 Currant Worm 



The foliage is attacked by the worms, of which two broods a 

 year hatch from eggs laid on .the under side of the leaves. The 

 worms are easily killed with an arsenical spray such as arsenate 

 of lead, three pounds to fifty gallons, applied as soon as they make 

 their appearance, usually when the fruit is half grown. This 

 spray should be combined with a fungicide either bordeaux 

 mixture, 3-3-50 formula, or lime-sulphur 1 to 40. Powdered 

 hellebore is sometimes used a teaspoonful to a gallon of water. 



