Planting, Cultivation and Pruning. 



21$ 



elaborating. Muddy or rinsed fruit suggests the sty, not a dining-room. 

 A mulch of leaves, straw, evergreen boughs, anything that will keep the 

 ground clean, applied immediately after the early spring culture, is the 

 best and most obvious way of 

 preserving the fruit; and this 

 method also secures all the 

 good results which have been 

 shown to follow mulching. 

 Where it is not convenient to 

 mulch, I would suggest that the 

 ground be left undisturbed after 

 the first thorough culture, until 

 the fruit is gathered. The weeds 

 that grow in the interval may 

 be mowed, and allowed to fall 

 under the bushes. By the end 

 of June, the soil will have become 

 so fixed that, with a partial sod 

 of weeds, the fruit may hang 

 over, or even rest upon it, with- 

 out being splashed by the heavy 

 rains then prevalent. This 

 course is not so neat as clean 

 cultivation or mulching. Few 

 fruit growers, however, can 

 afford to make appearances the 

 first consideration. I have heard 

 of oats being sown among the 

 bushes to keep the fruit clean, 

 but their growth must check 

 the best development of the fruit 

 quite as much as the natural 

 crop of weeds. It would be 

 better to give clean culture, and 

 grow rye, or any early maturing 

 green crop, somewhere else, and when the fruit begins to turn, spread 

 this material under the bushes. On many places, the mowings of weedy, 

 swampy places would be found sufficient for the purpose. After the 

 fruit is gathered, start the cultivator and hoe at once, so as to secure 

 vigorous foliage and healthful growth throughout the entire summer. 



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Currants and Gooseberries in Tree Form. 



