156 THE OKCHA11D AND FETJIT GAEDEtf. 



for getting rid of the Aphis, and hand-picking the only 

 effectual method to use against caterpillars. 



For the production of prize currants, the bushes 

 must be cut in very close. Mr. Eivers says, " The young 

 shoots should be annually shortened to two inches, so 

 that the trees, when pruned, are like the stool in an 

 osier bed. Currants make very handsome pyramids, 

 and bear profusely." 



The finest-named varieties of currant bushes may be 

 bought for 4:8. 6d. per dozen ; excellent sorts maybe had 

 for 4s. ; and choice new kinds are occasionally as high 

 as 9s. the dozen. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

 RASPBERRIES, 



MOST cultivators of a garden like to have a plantation 

 of raspberries, because they make a delicious fruit for 

 the table, a much-relished confection as raspberry 

 jam, and a useful family store as raspberry vinegar 

 a refreshing drink in colds and fevers. The wild rasp- 

 berry has been a native of woods, and so loves a damp 

 soil, retentive of moisture. The cultivated cane follows 

 its natural habit, and loves a moist unctuous soil, of a 

 strong loamy character. The raspberry cane so loves 

 moisture and richness combined, that some growers 

 have found them thrive best planted in trenches a yard 

 wide, and eighteen inches deep, like celery trenches, 

 manuring the surface from time to time, to retain the 

 damp of the summer rains. This kind of planting 

 would not do in cold wet ground, but would be most 

 valuable in dry, light, or poor localities. A darkish 

 loam is generally good for them, but only good, sound 

 garden earth will do, and the soil should be tolerably 

 deep. A shallow soil of hot, loose sand is the worst of 

 all for raspberries, and under any circumstances top- 

 dressing or mulching does great good. 



