CHAPTER XXIII 



THE CURRANT. 



The currant, irom its hardiness, free growth, easy culture, 

 great and uniform productiveness, pleasant flavor, and early- 

 ripening, is one of the most valuable of our summer fruits. 



It is propagated, like the gooseberry, from cuttings, for 

 which vigorous shoots of the last year's production should be 

 chosen. As soon as the leaves ripen, cut off the new growth 

 and make cuttings about six inches long. Set them in rows 

 fifteen inches apart and two inches in the rows. Just as winter 

 sets in, cover them over with coarse litter — taking it off in 

 spring, and keeping them well hoed, and by fall they will 

 have large fine roots. Half the buds only at the top of the 

 shoot should be left; and the plants may be kept trained up 

 to a single stem, a few inches high, when the branches should 

 radiate on all sides in an upward direction so as to form a 

 handsome spreading top. Currant bushes, if permitted to 

 sucker moderately, will, however, endure for a longer time, 

 as the new shoots, sending out roots of their own, afford, in 

 fact, a spontaneous renewal. But care is needed that they do 

 not form too dense a growth. 



The currant being one of the hardiest and most certain fruit- 

 producing bushes is, for this reason, badly neglected. Good 

 cultivation and pruning will more than triple the size of the 

 fruit. Old bushes should have the old and stunted wood cut 

 out, and thrifty shoots left at regular distances. Old manure 

 should be spaded in about the roots, and the soil kept clean, 

 cultivated, and mellow. As the currant starts and expands 

 its leaves very early, this work should be performed as soon 

 as the frost leaves the soil. A resident in Canada says that 

 the best currants he ever had, produced in great abundance, 

 were obtained in a dry season, by covering the whole surface of 

 the ground with cow manure as a mulch, three inches thick. 



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