THE CURRANT. 147 



it. It will require but a very few minutes to insure 

 a clean crop. 



I imagine that if these pages are ever read, and 

 such advice as I can give is followed, it will be 

 more often by the mistress than the master of the 

 Home Acre, ^l address him, but quite as often I 

 mean her; and just at this point I am able to give 

 " the power behind the throne " a useful hint. 

 Miss Alcott, in her immortal "Little Women," has 

 given an instance of what dire results may follow 

 if the " jelly won't jell." Let me hasten to insure 

 domestic peace by telling my fair reader (who will 

 also be, if the jelly turns out of the tumblers 

 tremulous yet firm, a gentle reader) that if she will 

 have the currants picked just as soon as they are 

 fully ripe, and before they have been drenched by 

 a heavy rain, she will find that the jelly will "jell." 

 It is over-ripe, water-soaked currants that break up 

 families and demolish household gods. Let me 

 also add another fact, as true as it is strange, that 

 white currants make red jelly; therefore give the 

 pearly fruit ample space in the garden. 



In passing to the consideration of varieties it is 

 quite natural in this connection to mention the 

 white sorts first. I know that people are not yet 

 sufficiently educated to demand white currants of 

 their grocers ; but the home garden is as much be- 

 yond the grocer's stall as the home is better than a 



