54 ORCHARD FRUIT TREE CULTURE 



does not happen to growths thrown up from the ground, or to 

 branches springing from such growths. 



The time to think of and to provide for this is when the cuttings 

 are made, as while it is the general practice to remove all except 

 the two or three upper eyes from those of red and white currants 

 and gooseberries, those of the black currant are left in their entirety, 

 and the types of plants are produced as shown in our illustrations. 

 Do not, however, let us be understood as saying that black currants 

 are invariably grown as stools, because this is not so. There are 

 people, especially amateurs, who prefer to grow them on stems, 

 as the other currants are, and nurserymen find this a convenient 

 form in which to grow them for sale, possibly because they are 

 more shapely ; so while we express our preference (for market 

 purposes) for the " stooled " black currant, we have not a word to 

 say in opposition to those who differ from us it is not a point of 

 serious import. 



While we pride ourselves with being among the Progressives, 

 we must confess to an unbending conservatism respecting the 

 making of cuttings. It is perhaps an unimportant, but still signifi- 

 cant, point, as indicating the changed methods of the times, from 

 the reasoned and ordered methods of the past to those of the push 

 and rush of the present day, that many advisers on the making of 

 cuttings say " cut pieces of ripened wood into lengths," presumably 

 irrespective of where you are to cut them. It is on this point we are 

 old-fashioned and precise, for we insist upon the advisability of 

 making the lower cut immediately below an eye, and the top cut 

 immediately above one. It may be that no better results ensue 

 we do not maintain that they do but ours is a long-tried and well- 

 tested method, against which the newer methods appear to be 

 slovenly. So far as we are able to do so we advocate only those 

 methods and practices upon which we can speak with conviction, 

 based on our own experience. 



The best soil in which to strike cuttings is one that is open, 

 friable, and well worked to the depth of i foot. In badly tilled, 

 close, or heavy soils they will doubtless strike, but the roots are 

 very meagre and the top growth sparse they do not make a 

 propitious start towards vigorous, healthy bushes. We open the 

 usual trench in order to give ourselves working facilities, then 



