THE RED, WHITE, AND BLACK CURRANT. 



567 



account has been furnished. The best and most 

 general mode is by cuttings of the ripened 

 shoots of the current year's growth, treated in 

 all respects as the gooseberry, — namely, the most 

 vigorous and straight young shoots should be 

 chosen and collected before the autumn prun- 

 ing commences ; the tops being cut off, the re- 

 mainder of the shoot, from 1 foot to 14 inches in 

 length, is retained for the cutting. All the eyes 

 or buds, as far as the cutting is to be inserted in 

 the ground, should be rubbed off, to prevent the 

 appearance of suckers afterwards. If the cut- 

 ting is a foot long, one-half of it should be in- 

 serted in the ground, and the soil made firm 

 about it at planting, which operation should be 

 performed as soon as the cuttings are removed 

 from the tree. The best situation for them is a 

 shady border, where they should be set in rows 

 18 inches apart, and the cuttings 8 inches in the 

 line. We need hardly remark, after what has 

 been said in article Propagation by Cuttings, 

 that all cuttings should be cut off immediately 

 under and close to a bud or joint ; for the inter- 

 nodes, or spaces between the joints, are inca- 

 pable of emitting roots. Some lay in the cut- 

 tings till spring, and then plant them. There 

 can be no advantage from following this practice, 

 if time and space admit of their being planted 

 at once. Others attribute much of the success 

 of rooting to the placing a little bundle of moss 

 at the base of the cutting at planting, removing 

 it again when they are transplanted the follow- 

 ing year. Unless it be to retain a little moisture 

 at their base, and in ordinary soils this will not 

 be required, this practice may be disregarded. 



Soil and situation. — The red and white cur- 

 rant attain the largest size in a strong, rich, 

 rather moist soil, although excellent crops are 

 produced in most ordinary good garden -ground. 

 The fruit ripens earlier, if it is not of so large a 

 size, in light rich soils, and seems to prosper 

 rather better when somewhat shaded than when 

 exposed to the full sun. Like the gooseberry, 

 they are best planted in quarters by themselves, 

 and in rows 5 feet asunder, and the same dis- 

 tance plant from plant in the line. They also 

 do well trained as espaliers, either vertically 

 or in the domical or curvilinear manner, and in 

 the former of these ways occupy the least room. 

 Like the gooseberry, the plantations should be 

 renewed every six or seven years ; but in good 

 soils they will continue productive for twelve or 

 fifteen years, or more, extending in size until 

 they become too large and encumber each other, 

 unless great pains are taken to reduce them by 

 cutting out the old branches and encouraging 

 the young wood. The proper season for trans- 

 planting is October and very early in Novem- 

 ber. The usual practice of scattering them over 

 the garden by the sides of walks, &c, is errone- 

 ous ; for when in a compartment by them- 

 selves their roots are allowed to remain unmo- 

 lested by digging amongst them, and manure 

 can be easily applied by top-dressing, or using 

 it in a liquid form. They are also much more 

 conveniently protected from birds by netting. 

 In this way we have them till the end of No- 

 vember — longer, indeed, than they remain good 

 when trained against northern walls. Previous 



to planting, the ground should be trenched two 

 feet and a half deep, adding a heavy dressing of 

 rank manure at the same time. Deep rich soils 

 are most beneficial to the gooseberry, currant, 

 and raspberry, because, although the roots de- 

 scend in search of food, from their hardy con- 

 stitution they always ripen their wood perfectly, 

 which is not the case with more tender trees, 

 such as even the apple, pear, peach, &c; and 

 hence, in their cases, shallow soils with less 

 enrichment are found to be essential to their 

 health. To insure fruit earlier than that pro- 

 duced in the open quarters, a few trees should 

 be planted against a south wall, and this accom- 

 modation may even be formed between the 

 more permanent trees, but in no case should 

 the latter be sacrificed to the former ; rather set 

 apart a small portion of the wall to them en- 

 tirely. The black currant differs not in the 

 means of propagation from the red and white, 

 but it luxuriates more than they in a deep, rich, 

 rather humid soil. In light, warm, shallow 

 ground it produces scanty crops, and the ber- 

 ries are very small ; whereas in soils the reverse 

 it attains its fullest size and excellence. 



Pruningand training. — Training in the stand- 

 ard form is comparatively of modern date, and 

 certainly possesses the merit of occupying less 

 space than if grown as low-spreading bushes. 

 The fruit is better exposed to the influence of 

 light and heat, and hence increased in fla- 

 vour, if even diminished in size. The stems 

 are trained to about 3 or 4 feet in height, 

 and the head 1 is closely pruned in every year 

 soon after the fruit is gathered. Many advocate 

 the practice of planting red and white currants 

 in shady situations, thinking thereby to increase 

 the size of the fruit. This, no doubt, to some 

 extent is true, but always at a sacrifice of fla- 

 vour. The same end would be attained by sup- 

 plying the plants during the swelling of the fruit 

 with copious supplies of liquid manure, and 

 even during very bright sunshine shading them 

 during a few hours daily by means of thin can- 

 vass screens. When currants are trained against 

 walls, the best form is to carry a branch to the 

 right hand and another to the left of the main 

 stem, about a foot from the ground, and to train 

 the side shoots about 9 or 10 inches apart in a 

 vertical direction. The black currant requires 

 little pruning. A moderate thinning out of the 

 branches, removing old and exhausted ones, to 

 be replaced by young ones selected at the 

 autumn pruning, is almost all that is required. 

 The red and white currant should be treated as 

 recommended for gooseberries, only shortening 

 more or less all the young wood left on accord- 

 ing to its strength. Suckers arising from the 

 roots should be carefully displaced, and that at 

 the part from whence they issue. Where the 

 spurs, particularly on old plants, have become 

 crowded, thin them out, retaining the youngest 

 and best situated. The white currant is much 

 more slender in growth than the red variety, 

 and does not produce nearly so much young 

 wood; less pruning, therefore, is necessary, and 

 it may even be of advantage to leave the side 

 branches at pruning somewhat longer than 

 those of the red variety, to encourage the prin- 



