PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 183 



tivation ; and as for productiveness, no statement of mine can 

 convey an idea. To believe, you must see. And this is the 

 result of pruning. True, Mr. Hite follows the scriptural injunc- 

 tion about a barren tree, to " dig about and dung it," with all of 

 his trees, and vines, and shrubs, and flowers, and table vegeta- 

 bles, but with the currant, the secret of success is pruning. 

 " Keep no old wood," is the injunction. Every branch that has 

 borne three crops must be cut away at the ground, having been 

 twice shortened in, by which the short fruit-spurs on the new 

 wood are always loaded, and the bunches growing close to the 

 canes, so that they look like ropes of red berries. To commence 

 with a single plant, cut away close to the ground, to induce sev- 

 eral vigorous shoots, instead of one, growing tree-shaped. Next 

 spring shorten all these canes, and let the fruit grow below and 

 new shoots above, and next spring shorten these again. Some 

 of Mr. Kite's three-year old plants are now^ five or six feet high, 

 so loaded Vv-ith fruit that they have to be trained to stakes — 

 which, by the by, is the true way to grow currants. Next spring 

 these vigorous, fruitful branches, all that are three years old, will 

 be unsparingly cut away. It is the secret of success. Meantime 

 new shoots come up in successive order to take their place. I 

 have no doubt of the fact that currant bushes thus treated, of 

 the sour sort that are now growing neglected along many a gar- 

 den wall, untrimmed in half a century, may be made to afford a 

 field crop of more than two hundred bushels per acre, of superior 

 size and flavor to those grown in the ordinary way, and that the 

 cost of production will be far below twenty-five cents a bushel. 

 The annual pruning would be the greatest part of the labor, and 

 in the vicinity of this city the wood cut away would be worth 

 nearly the cost of cutting, and in the country, where stone chim- 

 neys and brick ovens are still fashionable, the brush, when well 

 seasoned, would make superior oven wood. Beside what I have 

 said of this garden, there is much more to be learned from it, 

 and that where it blossoms now, nine or ten years ago was a wil- 

 derness of wild bushes, blackberries, and rocks, and that he who 

 has said, " presto, change," is not a magician, but a very humble 

 individual, with no more power to produce such change, than the 

 most humble individual of the mighty multitude, who have an 

 idea above the gutter, with a will to work that idea out in the 

 rich productions of nature improved. Beside the fruitful grapes 

 I have alluded to, Mr. Hite has what cost him, at Dr. Grant's 



