CHAPTER XXV. 



CURRANTS CHOICE OF SOIL, CULTIVATION, PRUNING, ETC. 



'T^HEY were " cums " in our early boyhood, and " cums " 

 they are still in the rural vernacular of many regions. 

 In old English they were "corrans," because the people as- 

 sociated them with the raisins of the small Zante grape, once 

 imported so exclusively from Corinth as to acquire the name 

 of that city. 



Under the tribe Grossularice of the Saxifrage family we 

 find the Ribes^ containing many species of currants and 

 gooseberries ; but, in accordance with the scope of this book, 

 we shall quote from Professor Gray (whose arrangement we 

 follow) only those that furnish the currants of cultivation. 



" Ribes rubrum, red currant, cultivated from Europe, also 

 wild on our northern border, with straggling or reclining 

 stems, somewhat heart-shaped, moderately three to five 

 lobed leaves, the lobes roundish and drooping racemes from 

 lateral buds distinct from the leaf buds ; edible berries red, 

 or a white variety." 



This is the parent of our cultivated red and white varie- 

 ties. Currants are comparatively new-comers in the garden. 

 When the Greek and Roman writers were carefully noting 

 and naming the fruits of their time, the Ribes tribe was as 

 wild as any of the hordes of the far North, in whose dim, 

 cold, damp woods and bogs it then flourished, but, Hke other 

 Northern tribes, it is making great improvement under the 

 genial influences of civilization and culture. 



