ON FRUIT CULTURE. 



997 



the buds it is* advisable not to prune until spring, otherwise 

 every bud will disappear, and a crop will be impossible. 

 Both the Red and the White Currant are admirably suited to 

 growing as single, double, or treble cordons, and may be 

 planted against north or 

 other walls. The pruning 

 of cordons consists in 

 merely cutting in all side- 

 shoots at any time during 

 the winter. One very de- 

 cided advantage of these 

 cordon Currants on walls 

 is that by means of nets 

 they are easily protected 

 from birds when the fruit 

 is ripe, and if some plan 

 is adopted of throwing the 

 rain off the trees, really 

 plump and delicious Cur- 

 rants may be picked up to 

 the end of November. If 

 the rain fell on the fruit 

 it would rot or split, and 

 thus fail to keep. 



Cuttings of the young 

 wood of Black Currants 

 root readily if put in firm, 

 sandy soil immediately the 

 foliage has all fallen. The 

 same remark applies also 

 to the Red and White 

 varieties, but the cuttings 

 are made differently. In 



the case of Blacks none of the lower buds are removed, as it is 

 always an advantage to have young wood annually starting from 

 the base. With Reds and Whites the conditions are altered, 

 as it would be undesirable to thus have young wood continually 

 springing up ; therefore, in making the cuttings all the lower 

 buds are cut out. Supposing the cutting is i5in. or i8in. 

 long, only three or four buds are allowed to remain. In this 

 w^ay a clean leg or stem is obtained, and if the buds have 

 been properly cut out there will be no trouble with young 

 shoots springing from the base. In two years the little bushes 

 may be planted out in the position they are to permanently 

 occupy. 



Currants, and their near relative, the Gooseberry, are attacked 

 by several voracious animal pests, of which the most prominent 

 are the caterpillars of the Magpie Moth {Abraxas grossu/ariata, 



Fig.. 647. — Correct Method of Pruning 

 Red or White Currants. 



