158 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



old black wood being cut out ; plenty of young wood will then 

 be thrown up. 



A stock of young bushes can soon be worked up by making 

 cuttings from the superfluous shoots, which can be thinned out 

 of the young bushes the following winter after they are planted. 

 Planting will cost about £12 per acre, including the purchase of 

 the young bushes at £4 per 1,000. Picking costs for an average 

 crop 3s. 6d. to 4s. per cwt., but if picked off the stalk, when they 

 are marketed in tubs for jam, an extra 2s. per cwt. is paid. 



Pruning is usually done by the acre. The cost depends greatly 

 on the size and age of the trees ; about 9d. per 100 is paid for 

 pruning strong well-established bushes. Exclusive of picking, 

 the cultivation, including manure, costs about £8 to £9 per acre, 

 and an average crop may be taken as about 2 tons per acre, 

 though I consider Black Currants uncertain croppers. The 

 price for Black Currants varies greatly ; this season they have 

 sold at low prices, down to £14, per ton, owing to the heavy 

 crops. The foliage being well advanced before the frost of 

 May 21, the crop practically escaped damage. • The average 

 price may be taken at about £25 per ton net on the stalk. 



Bed Currants. — Scotch Bed is a very good early variety 

 with Baby Castle and Bed Dutch for main crop. The bushes 

 should be planted 5 feet apart, and are best grown on a leg. 

 The leading shoots should be cut back to within three or four 

 eyes at planting, care being taken to cut to an outside eye, the 

 object being to get the tree as cup-shaped as possible. A stock 

 of bushes can easily be obtained by taking cuttings in the same 

 way as with Black Currants, but when the cuttings are put in 

 the lower buds must be rubbed off in order to grow the bushes 

 on a single stem. Young bushes may be bought at £3 per 1,000, 

 and the cost of planting should not exceed £10 per acre. 

 The cost of picking is from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per cwt., and double 

 these amounts if picked off the stalk. 



In pruning a Bed Currant the leading shoots are cut back 

 to two or three eyes, according to the strength of the shoots, 

 and the side-shoots should be cut back as close as possible, the 

 bush resembling the skeleton of an inverted umbrella (without 

 the stick) when pruned. The trees should also be gone over at 

 Midsummer, and the centres cleared out to let the sun and air 

 into the bush, and to throw vigour into the fruit-spurs for the 



