CHAPTER X. 



THE CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY. 



THE CURRANT, from its hardiness, free growth, easy culture, great 

 and uniform productiveness, pleasant flavor, and early ripening, is 

 one of the most valuable of our summer fruits. 



It is propagated, like the gooseberry, from cuttings, for which 

 vigorous shoots of the last year's production should be chosen. 

 Half the buds only at the top of the shoot, should be left ; and the 

 plants may be kept trained up to a single stem, a few inches high, 

 when the branches should radiate on all sides in an upward direction 

 so as to form a handsome spreading top. Currant bushes, if per- 

 mitted to sucker moderately, will, however, endure for a longer time, 

 as the new shoots, sending out roots of their own, afford, in fact, a 

 spontaneous renewal. But care is needed that they do not form too 

 dense a growth. 



The currant being one of the hardiest and most certain fruit-pro- 

 ducing bushes, it for this reason is badly neglected. Good cultivation 

 and pruning will more than triple the size of the fruit. Old bushes 

 should have the old and stunted wood cut out, and thrifty shoots 

 left at regular distances. Old manure should be spaded in about the 

 roots, and the soil kept clean, cultivated, and mellow. As the cur- 

 rant starts and expands its leaves very early, this work should be 

 performed as soon as the frost leaves the soil. 



PRUNING THE GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT. In the culture of 

 the gooseberry and currant three distinct modes are adopted. The 

 first, which is quite common in this country, is to plant the bushes 

 along garden fences, where they often grow up with grass, and, 

 being neither cultivated nor cared for, the fruit becomes small and 

 of little value. This is the worst mode. 



The next is to cultivate, but not prune them. The fruit on such 

 bushes is fine while they are young, but as they become filled with 

 a profusion of old bearing wood it diminishes in size. 



The third and best mode is to give them good, clean cultivation, 



