402 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



duce abundantly of large fruits, while many of them 

 bear fruits little larger than occasional plants of the 

 common flowering currant, to which species the Cran- 

 dall belongs. When the crop of 1892, at Cornell, was 

 at its height, I made a record of the size of fruit upon 

 each plant, classifying it into three categories poor, 

 fairly good, and good. The poor fruit was such as 

 appeared to be little larger than the fruit of the flow- 

 ering currant, or such as is shown five -eighths nat- 

 ural size in the lower spray in Fig. 103. The good 

 fruit is represented in the upper spray in the engraving, 

 and it ran from five-eighths to three-fourths inch in 

 diameter. The fairly good fruits were those of in- 

 termediate size. 



Only a dozen plants out of fifty, or less than a 

 fourth of the whole number, could be called profitable. 

 There is every reason to expect that if cuttings were 

 taken from good plants alone, the Grandall currant 

 would soon rise in popular estimation. At its best, 

 the Crandall has decided merits. The fruits are large 

 and handsome, firm, of good culinary quality, and the 

 plant is thrifty, hardy and productive. The fruits are 

 borne in very short and open clusters, to be sure, but 

 they are not picked by the cluster, like the red and 

 white currants, but singly, like the gooseberries. To 

 some people the flavor of the fruit is disagreeable, and 

 it has been said to have a medicinal flavor; but there 

 are others the writer included who are fond of them, 

 even to eat from the hand. In pies and jellies we 

 have found them to be useful. It is not to be ex- 

 pected, of course, that these fruits will find a ready 

 market, because consumers are not acquainted with 

 them; but if the stock were more uniform, I think 



