28 FIGTOBIAL PRAUTIGAL FBUIT GROWING. 



decry secateurs to have to tackle some trees such as it has been my 

 unhappy lot to have to reform— trees of considerable size, and so crowded 

 with interlacing shoots as to make it almost impossible to penetrate them. 

 Here the secateurs have a tremendous pull over the knife, for the work can 

 be done as well and in half the time. In certain positions it is difficult to 

 sever a shoot with the knife without steadying it with the other hand ; the 

 secateurs steady and cut at the same time. 



In using pruning knives inexperienced persons frequently gash their 

 thumbs. They have not learned the art of checking the progress of the 

 blade directly it has got through the shoot. This is owing to their clinging 

 fondly to the seductively curved handle. Personally, I regard the curved 

 handle, admirable though it may be in theory, as a snare. It is all right 

 when the pruner wants to take a sweeping pull, but not for delicate work. 

 If the pruning novice gets his upper fingers well up the back of the blade 

 he will not cut himself, because he has complete control of the knife. 



Black Currants. — " Cut and feed " must be the watchword in these 

 mite-ridden days. Neglected bushes have no chance at all. Cut, cut, cut ; 

 and feed, feed, feed. If the old wood is pruned away relentlessly, and at 

 the same time the soil is manured in order to encourage the production of 

 iresh shoots, there will be a chance for Black Currants, but not otherwise. 

 There are cultivators who will tell you that Black Currants need not be 

 yruned, because they are young wood bearers, and not spur bearers. These 

 Bxcellent people forget that wood follows the knife. It is so with large 

 trees, and it is so with small ones. If the wood that has borne fruit is not 

 cut out it loses its freshness, and quickly becomes hard, twiggy, and budless. 

 Then the lean years of the bush begin, and the grower suliers. The only 

 way to keep a Black Currant bush continuously fruitful is to induce it to 

 form a succession of fresh shoots year after year, like a Peach (see Fig. 17, 

 page 29). 



Re& and White Currants. — These may be trained and pruned 

 very much like Gooseberries, except that when six or eight main branches 

 are established, a rigorous spurring may be practised, and young wood 

 prevented from extending. Most pruners do this in winter, and I am well 

 aware that on the farms it is almost impossible to attend to the bushes at 

 any other time, owing to the available labour being so much in demand for 

 urgent tasks. All the same, I have proved the efficacy of summer pruning 

 to my own complete satisfaction, and I urge it on all who can spare the 

 time. A pair of secateurs or a knife may be employed, and I have set a 

 willing boy to work with a pair of strong scissors with good results. The 

 summer pruning should consist in shortening the breastwood to about half 

 a dozen leaves, and the winter work of spurring these in to a couple of buds 

 (see Fig. 18, page 30). 



G-ooseberries. — " If you want a few fine flowers, out hard ; if you want 

 plenty of little ones, cut lightly " : thus the expert Rose grower. Very much 

 the same advice might be given respecting Gooseberries. Those people who 

 want a great quantity of fruit, and do not mind lacerating their hands in the 

 gathering of it, may imitate the popular plan of letting the bushes run wild ; 

 but those who want quality as well as quantity, and deem it humiliating to 

 have to fly to gloves in order to protect themselves from scratches while 

 gathering, will give the bushes a httle attention with the secateurs. I could 



(^Continued on page 32.) 



