VARIOUS SPECIES OF FRUITS 



123 



by the New Jersey, Wisconsin and Massachusetts Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Stations and the National Department of Agriculture. 



CURRANT 



People who have been accustomed to the discovery of a few 

 scrawny clusters of diminutive Currants on the naked stems of bushes 

 stuck in a fence row, or in some out-of-the-way corner of the garden, 

 will doubtless be surprised to learn that by proper care and feeding, indi- 

 vidual bushes of Red Dutch Currant have yielded more than 12 

 pounds (nearly 10 quarts) and that bushes of Kerry Rlack Currant have 

 borne over 10 pounds (about 8 quarts). The bushes which thus 

 distinguished themselves were at the Central Experimental Farm in 

 Ottawa, Canada, where only half a dozen of each were under test 

 just the conditions that should prevail in the home garden (Fig. 88) . 



Such possibilities, coupled with the wonderful, annual bearing habit 

 of the plants, makes it easy to be seen that half a dozen bushes of Red 

 or White Currants, or three of each, should give an ample supply for 

 a family. Every garden should have space for that many bushes. 

 Whether or not the black varieties should be included will depend 

 upon the taste of the household, since 

 the people who enjoy Black Currants 

 are by no means as numerous as those 

 who like red and white ones. 



Currant flavor is fairly uniform 

 for red and white varieties; among the 

 blacks there is considerable variation. 

 In each group other distinctions be- 

 tween varieties are earliness and lateness 

 of ripening, lengths of the clusters and 

 of the fruit stems some being short, 

 others long; the size of the berries 

 some being large, others small, and in 

 many, cases diminishing in size from 

 large ones at the bases to small ones 

 at the tips of the clusters; and the 

 growth habits of the bushes some 

 being fairly erect, others prone to droop 

 more or less. 



Among the black varieties are 

 RLACK CHAMPION, whose vigorous 

 bushes bear medium-sized, mild fruits 

 in fair abundance; RLACK NAPLES, 

 similarly vigorous, but bearing variable- 



Fig. 87. Currant blossoms 



