CHAPTER XXV. 



CURRANTS CHOICE OF SOIL, CULTIVATION, PRUNING, ETC. 



THEY were " curns " in our early boyhood, and " curns " they are 

 still in the rural vernacular of many regions. In old English they 

 were " corrans," because the people associated them with the raisins of the 

 small Zante grape, once imported so exclusively from Corinth as to acquire 

 the name of that city. 



Under the tribe Grossularice of the Saxifrage family we find the Ribes, 

 containing many species of currants and gooseberries ; but, in accordance 

 with the scope of this book, we shall quote from Professor Gray (whose 

 arrangement we follow) only those that furnish the currants of cultivation. 



" Ribes Rubrum, red currant, cultivated from Europe, also wild on our 

 northern border, with straggling or reclining stems, somewhat heart- 

 shaped, moderately three to five lobed leaves, the lobes roundish and 

 drooping racemes from lateral buds distinct from the leaf buds ; edible 

 berries red, or a white variety." 



This is the parent of our cultivated red and white varieties. Currants 

 are comparatively new-comers in the garden. When the Greek and 

 Roman writers were carefully noting and naming the fruits of their time, 

 the Ribes tribe was as wild as any of the hordes of the far north, in whose 

 dim, cold, damp woods and bogs it then flourished ; but, like other northern 

 tribes, it is making great improvement under the genial influences of civili- 

 zation and culture. 



Until within a century or two, gardeners who cultivated currants at all 

 were content with wild specimens from the woods. The exceedingly small, 

 27 



