UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



^ BULLETIN No. 856 | 





Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



jyJ^'^U-u 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



September 3, 1920 



CURRANT-GRAPE GROWING: A PROMISING NEW 



INDUSTRY. 



By Geokge 0. Htjsmann, 



Pomologist in Charge of Viticultural Investigations, Office of Horticultural and 



Pomological 'Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



- Page. 



Historical introduction * 1 



Importance of the currant industry 



in Greece 2 



Imports of currants into the United 



States 3 



Explorer's notes on currant grapes 3 



Currant-grape varieties - 4 



Introduction of Panariti cuttings 5 



Description of the Panariti grape 6 



Currant grapes successfully grown in 



this country 7 



Page. 

 Conditions suited to currant-grape 



culture. 7. 



Analysis of the soil of . the Fresno 



Experiment Vineyard : 8 



Preparation of the soil, planting, 



and culture of currant vineyards- 9 



Pruning and training the vines 9 



Ringing the vines 10 



Congeniality of the Panariti variety 



to phylloxera-resistant stocks 12 



Harvesting and curing currants 15 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



Very few vines of the " Corinth grapes," from which the dried cur- 

 rants of commerce are made, have been grown in this country, and 

 these in California only. Many people doubtless suppose that the 

 fruit, which is sold as dried currants and extensively used in cakes, 

 puddings, and the like, is grown on currant bushes. 1 Botanically the 

 varieties of currant grapes belong to Vitis vinifera. According to 

 Eisen, they are referred to by Pliny as grown in Greece in 75 A. D., 

 no further historical record of them appearing for nearly a thousand 

 years. 



During the eleventh century, in the old herbals and in the literature 

 of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, references to them 

 occur as " reysyns cle corauntzs," " Corauntz," " Corent," " reysonys 

 of Corawnce,-' " raysns of Coren," and " currans." 



1 Rides sp. 



169797° — 20 



