204 THE SMALL COUNTRY PLACE 



Varieties. 



Only a few varieties of currants are grown, there 

 being less difference in them than in the varieties of 

 other fruit, the size, productiveness, and quality being 

 largely dependent upon the richness of the soil, the 

 cultivation given, and the pruning. Of the red varie- 

 ties, the Fay, Cherry, Wilder and Red Cross are the 

 largest and most productive. Of the white varieties, 

 the White Grape and White Imperial are among the 

 best, the last named being of especially fine quality. 



Black or English currants are sometimes grown for 

 home use, and near factory villages of English people 

 there is some demand for them. The bushes are hardy, 

 very productive, and free from all insect and fungous 

 attack. The fruit of the yellow-flowered currant is of 

 some value, especially the variety known as Crandall's 

 Improved, but it ripens unequally upon the bushes so 

 that the crop cannot all be picked at one time. In 

 quality this fruit is superior to that of the black or 

 English currant. 



Insect and Fungous Pests. 



The worst enemy of the currant bushes is the currant 

 worm, known wherever there are currant bushes. The 

 mature insect lays its eggs on the mid-rib of the leaves. 

 The worms soon hatch out, and first each one makes a 

 minute hole in the leaf upon which the egg was laid. 

 They feed very vigorously and in ten days or two weeks 

 the leaves will have been entirely eaten up. The worm 

 is destroyed by hellebore used with the Bordeaux 

 mixture. 



A cane-girdler similar to the one attacking the black- 

 cap raspberry lays its eggs near the ends of the new- 

 growing cane in June; the end of this cane wilts and 



