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51 



{S.) By suckers. With nearly all varieti'^s of currants 

 and gooseberries suckers spring from the roots in great 

 abundance. These may be clipped off at the base and 

 planted out as is usual with other plants. But plants got 

 from suckers are not usually so good as those produced 

 from cuttings. 



(4.) By layers. Branches, when bent over and covered 

 with a thin covering of earth or mulch, will readily take 

 root. The spring is the best time to perform this operation, 

 as by the fall the layer docomes well rooted when it may be 

 separated from the parent plant. Layering is less practiced 

 with the currant than with the gooseberry. 



The soil should be prepared and fertilized as for other 

 jrops, and the plants placed in rows about four or five feet 

 apart, and four feet in the row. Clean cultivation can then 

 be kept up, if the plants have been regmarly set, by 

 running the cultivator both ways. Like all other fruits, 

 they should be kept well pruned and thinned out. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES. 



Currant and goosebeiry bushes are very subject to the 

 attacks of several varieties of insects which very much 

 resemble one another ; and unless closely watched they are 

 often defoliated in a week after leafing out. The prompt 

 use of powdered white Hellebore scattered over the plant 

 when wet with dew, or mixed in water and applied by aid 

 of a sprinkler, will soon rid the hushes of these pests. 

 Tobacco water and Lime are also used with <50od results as 

 a preventative, but the hellebore is considered the most 

 effective. 



But an enemy less easily combated is the gooseberry 

 milldew, which attacks principally the European varieties, 

 and is the great drawback to their successful cultivation 

 in this country. The external appearance of the fungus is 

 well known, showing on the young wood, leaves, and fruit 

 as a whitish downy coating, usually appearing soon after 

 the leaves are fully expanded. Successful results in the 

 treatment of this disease are reported l)y Prof. Goft' of the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station of Wisconsin, by the use 

 of Potassium Sulphide, at the rate of one ounce dissolved 

 in four gallons of water. Spraying was commenced when 

 the leaves were partly expanded, and repeated several 

 times during the summer. 



