FRUIT-GARDENING. 81 



cultivated in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 comprising twelve varieties of red, ten of white, five kinds of 

 black, together with a champagne, mountain, rock, upright, and 

 Pennsylvanian. Any number of varieties of the red and white 



Red Dutch Currants. 



may be procured from sowing the seed ; but they are generally 

 propagated by cuttings of the last year s wood, which should be 

 of sufficient length to form handsome plants, with a clear stem 

 ten inches high, which may be planted immediately upon losing 

 their leaves in autumn, or very early the ensuing spring. 



The Currant will grow in almost every soil, but succeeds best 

 in one loamy and rich. The best flavored fruit is produced 

 from plants in an open situation ; but they will grow under tho 

 shades of walls or trees, and either as low bushes, or trained 

 as espaliers. They bear chiefly on spurs, and on young wood 

 of from one to three years growth ; and therefore, in pruning, 

 mosj; of the young wood should be cut to within two or three 

 buds of that where it originated. After the plants are furnished 

 with full heads they produce many superfluous and irregular 

 shoots every summer, crowding the general bearers, so as to 

 require regulating and curtailing, both in the young growth of 

 the year and in older wood. 



The principal part of the work may be done in winter, or 

 early in spring ; but a preparatory part should be performed in 

 summer, to eradicate suckers, and thin the superfluous shoots 

 of the year, where they are so crowded as to exclude the sun 



4* 



