180 



The Garden Magazine, May, 1922 



take their natural form; don't try to make "trees" of them. 

 Most of the best fruit grows on the two and three year branches. 

 The older wood is weaker and is best cut out as far as it can be 

 spared. Removing it encourages new growth, but too many 

 branches spoil the bush. From six to ten strong ones are better 

 than more. Remove all very low limbs. 



> So far as is practicable, let two or three strong new shoots 

 grow each year, and cut out as many four year branches. If 

 a good shoot does not grow quite where it is needed, bring it 

 to the desired position and brace it there by a piece of pruned 

 cane worked in among older branches. Prune tall young canes 

 down to the desired height. Shorten back the strongest one 

 year growth on two and three year branches a third or half. 

 Gooseberry bushes are much less regular in their growth than 

 Currants and though the same principles apply, each bush is an 

 individual problem as interesting as a game of chess. Many 

 of the strong young shoots of such varieties as Downing and 

 Pearl spread out too low. Lift up each low young cane you 

 need between two older branches and slip a portion of a pruned 

 cane across above them and below it. Before midsummer it 

 Jias grown into its new position. 



The pruning knife and hand shears are the handiest tools for 

 pruning Currant bushes. But every Gooseberry has its thorns 

 and comfort requires the long-handled shears. 



When the Fruit is Ready to Gather 



SO DELICATE and tender is the fully ripe fruit that gather- 

 ing it is something of an art. It is because of the tender- 

 ness that really ripe fruit cannot be had at the market, and is 

 the strongest reason for growing currants and gooseberries in 

 your own garden. Q 



Grasp the stems of the clusters of currants at -their bases with 

 the thumb and forefinger, taking care not to crush any berries, 

 and lay them carefully in a quart box or some shallow vessel. 

 Take the fruit promptly to a cool, dark place that is moist, but 

 not damp. Currants used for jelly are usually gathered before 

 all of the berries of a cluster are fully colored. But, for other 

 purposes, if you would have the largest yield and cut down your 

 sugar bill, let the fruit ripen on the bush. 



The practice of stripping green gooseberries from the bushes 

 with gloved hands and running them through a fanning mill to 

 blow out the trash, blackens their reputation and is a sin against 

 those who eat them. Don't be guilty. Let them get ripe, then 

 put a clean, shallow box, two feet long and wide beneath the bush, 

 hold up the tip of a bearing branch that is over the box with the 

 left hand, and with the right pull off the fruit that hangs thickly 

 beneath and drop it into the box. Wearing gloves and using 

 this method, one may gather the fruit rapidly and easily. Cur- 

 rants and gooseberries stand handling better than other small 

 fruits and keep better, on and off the bushes. 



Their Endurance and Troubles 



DON'T let the bushes bear the first year. There should be a 

 little fruit the second year, half a crop the third year, and a 

 full crop the fourth year. With the best care, the bushes may 

 live and bear for twenty-five years or more; but they have usually 

 passed their best days at half that age. 



The branches afford the San Jose scale excellent board and 

 lodging when the parasites leave him alone; and the leaves are 

 exactly to the liking of the more fastidious currant worm. 

 Currant borers and aphids also disturb their peace, and the leaf 

 spot attacks them impartially. The European Gooseberries 



are very subject to mildew, and in some localities Currants suffer 

 seriously from cane blight. 



Formidable as the list seems, these pests may usually be readily 

 controlled by following the suggestions here given : 



I. To Control Scale: Before the buds unfold, spray the 

 bushes thoroughly with a preparation of commercial 

 lime-sulphur, diluted with eight times its volume of 

 water; or with a miscible oil, diluted according to 

 directions. 



II. To Control Currant Worm and Leaf Spot: When the 

 white Flowering Dogwoods are in full bloom, spray 

 thoroughly with pyrox at the strength recommended 

 for codling moth in the directions that accompany 

 the material. 



III. To Control Aphis: Examine the dormant Currant 



bushes carefully, and if tiny shining objects are 

 found near the buds at the ends of the young branches 

 you may expect aphides (plant lice). When these 

 first hatch, spray the under surfaces of the leaves 

 thoroughly with a solution of whale oil or fish oil soap 

 dissolved in soft water, 3 ounces to the gallon. Re- 

 peat this spray in about a week, and oftener if needed. 



IV. To Prevent Mildew: If English Gooseberries be grown, 



spray with a solution of one ounce of liver of sulphur 

 to two gallons of water when the leaves begin to 

 unfold, and three times later, at intervals of ten days. 

 V. To Control Currant Borers: Two kinds hatch from eggs 

 laid in the young canes and eat their way downward 

 through the pith; they may be controlled by cutting 

 off all sickly looking canes several inches below the 

 part affected in summer and again when the leaves 

 come out in the spring, and burning them. 



VI. To Check Cane Blight: If Currants are attacked, the 

 canes turn sickly, shrivel, and die at any time during 

 the growing season. Frequently the attack is on 

 bearing canes, when the fruit is half ripe. Dig out 

 and burn every affected bush. 



Unfortunately Currants and Gooseberries are hosts of one 

 stage of the pine blister-rust. This disease attacks the five- 

 needled Pines, of which our native White Pine is the most im- 

 portant. However, if the Currant and Gooseberry bushes be 

 planted nine hundred feet or more from the Pines the danger 

 is avoided. But in some New England and North Atlantic 

 states both the sale and planting of these fruits are legally 

 restricted. 



Varieties 



RED CROSS and Fay are well-known, fairly early red Cur- 

 rants. Perfection, which is a little later, is reliable and 

 productive. Wilder, a rather late variety, is very prolific and 

 is probably more extensively planted than the other kinds. 

 Diploma is very promising. White Imperial and White Grape 

 are the leading white Currants. 



Downing, our leading Gooseberry, is of a greenish color, very 

 productive, good and fairly large for an American variety. The 

 Pearl closely resembles it. Poorman, with pinkish-red berries, 

 is a very promising kind of good quality. Industry, which is a 

 large, dark red of good quality, is the best known European 

 variety in this country. Chautauqua is a pale green variety 

 of excellent flavor and of European ancestry, and is probably 

 as meritorious as the Industry. 



..c^'"": 



