60 FRUIT CULTURE. 



fruit not only on the spurs, but also upon well-ripened 

 wood of last year's growth. By keeping the trees well 

 Opened it allows them to fruit on the inside as well as at 

 the extremities. Summer pinching may be adopted to 

 advantage, as it assists in ripening fruit, and also in the 

 formation and maturing of fruit spurs. Do not allow 

 gooseberries to fruit much for the first season or two, and 

 what fruit there is should be gathered green, which does 

 not so much exhaust the tree. 



Currants. These may be treated much in the same way 

 as described for the gooseberry, only keep the tree more 

 open, with greater spaces between the branches. Strong 

 fruiting spurs are formed upon old wood, producing, npon 

 thinly dispersed branches, large bunches of fruit thickly 

 set in clusters, so thick indeed that they hang in per- 

 fect masses from the branches. The fruit is also 

 developed fully, and is much more easily arid quickly 

 gathered than when allowed to be more thinly dispersed 

 upon crowded trees. Summer pruning of red currants 

 is most useful. Shorten all useless side growths in June. 

 Then all that is required in the winter pruning is to cut 

 back the remainder of the summer pinching, to within 

 one or two eyes of the branch, and to shorten the growth 

 of the leading branches by half or two-thirds. This treat- 

 ment sounds somewhat severe, but it is the most satis- 

 factory one. 



Black Currants. These require entirely different treat- 

 ment from the foregoing. Whereas the red currant forms 

 fruiting spurs, the black currant does not, but fruits prin- 

 cipally on the young wood. Therefore the growth may 

 be allowed to remain much closer together. Remove all 

 weakly shoots and immature growth, and leave much 

 of the strongest of the current year's growth at full 



