288 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



send, of each color, such kinds as have proved, with him, 

 the best ; and in such numbers as you may wish. The 

 gooseberry delights in three things, a very rich soil, a shady 

 position, and a free circulation of air. If accommodated in 

 these respects, it will be free from mildew and give a sure 

 and ample crop of delicious fruit. 



Hill-tops are the best sites. In gardens the open and airy 

 parts should be selected; in low and confined situations 

 they mildew. Hog manure is esteemed the best for this 

 fruit. When the fruit begins to set, if threatened with 

 blight, take a moderately strong lime-water (sulphur added 

 will be all the better) or, if lime is not convenient, lye from 

 wood ashes, and drench the bushes freely with it. A large 

 watering-pot should be employed. Gooseberries may be in- 

 creased from cuttings like the currant, and with the same ease. 



Currants. — ^There are very few varieties of this fruit. 

 Our common red and white, if well cultivated, are very 

 good. The Large Dutch Red, and White, are much larger 

 varieties and generally preferred in the best Eastern gar- 

 dens. Every farmer, if he has nothing else, has a long row 

 of currant bushes, and gets, usually, five times as many cur- 

 rants as he can consume. Very few fruits have so few 

 diseases incident to them as the currant. It is not infested 

 with worms, its fruit is subject to no blight, it bears every 

 year, is rarely afiected either by severe winters or late 

 frosts, and we do not remember a season in our lives when 

 there was not, at least, a partial currant crop. 



We advise those who are careful in such matters to train 

 their currants to a tree form ; let a cutting be set, rub out 

 all the buds but two or three at the top ; at about twelve 

 or fifteen inches from the earth let the branches put out, 

 and never permit suckers to grow, or branches to stand 

 lower than this. The difficulty which some have found in 

 tree currants, that they are top-heavy and require staking 

 to prevent their being bent by winds and their own weight, 

 arises from having the stem too long. We have seen two 



