?9.6 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



Currant or gooseberry bushes are set between the trees and rows. These render the 

 plantation profitable from the second year, and are taken away when the nut trees 

 require the space. At four or five years from planting, sturdy shaped trees produce 

 some fruit, and about the eighth year a paying crop. In exceptionally fine seasons the 

 crop may reach 1 ton or more, but 8 to 10 cwt. per acre is an average yield. The price 

 ranges from 3d., in very abundant, to 3s. per pound in very scarce years. The prices are 

 entirely ruled by the supply, but the higher prices in a scarce year compensate for 

 light crops. The average price is 7d. for moderate and Is. 4d. for high quality 

 nuts 26 2s. 8d. for 8 cwt, at the first, and = 59 14s. 8d. at the latter price per 



Fig. 69. FILBEBT TREE AFTKB PRUNING. 



acre. The gooseberry or currant bushes more than pay expense* up to the twelfth or 

 fifteenth year. The best nut crops are obtained where the trees are not overtopped by 

 others, but this is only practicable in sheltered situations. The ground in Kent is 

 manured every other year with 1 to l tons of rags or shoddy, and dug in the winter 

 with pronged forks. It is kept clean by hoeing once or twice during the summer. 

 Pruning is done in late winter or early spring, care being taken to keep the trees in 

 cup form and the centre clear. The finest and most promising bloom-bearing young 

 wood is retained and tho older and coarser branches cut away, leaving some growths 

 bearing catkins on the same branches. The trees are mere skeletons after pruning 

 (see the right-hand side of Fig. 69). Standard trees merely require the dead or worn- 



