]JJ THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 311 
1 
cj essential to keep up a succession of young bearing shoots, as the fruit is less good when produced on 
branches which have borne for several years. The fruit is much improved in size and colour by 
shortening the young shoots after midsummer, leaving no more foliage than can perform its proper 
functions, and fully exposing that which is retained to enable it to do so. The currant is a valuable 
auxiliary to the dessert when grown upon a north wall, and for this purpose may be trained vertically 
and spurred in. 
THE BLACK CURRANT. 
The form in which this tree should be trained is similar to the preceding, but as its fruit is borne 
principally in the young wood it is necessary to leave a larger proportion of such shoots at the time of 
winter pruning. The rule may be to have as many as can be exposed without shading or crowding 
each other. The black Naples is the best to grow. The black currant does not grow so stiffly as the 
other sorts, and its branches are more liable to break down when laden with fruit. AVe find it advan- 
tageous to support a few of the branches with short stakes upon the principle that prevention is better 
than cure. Fruit is also produced upon small spurs on the older wood ; but as these are not abundant, 
dependence must be placed on the young wood principally. This is more apt to produce suckers than 
the other kinds, and therefore the formation of the cuttings must be carefully attended to. AVe are not 
aware that any other form of growing it has been tried, excepting the bush with open centre. 
THE RASPBERRY. 
The fruit of the Raspberry is produced upon suffruticose stems, which spring from the ground, either 
in the same or the previous year. In most of the kinds it is produced upon lateral shoots, which are borne 
by the previous year's canes. This fruit shrub differs from others of its class in the stems not being 
persistent, but only of annual duration. .They are of an herbaceous rather than a shrubby character. 
The object of the cultivator should be to get these annual shoots as strong as possible ; and, as a multi- 
plicity of suckers are thrown up by all the kinds (but the true yellow Antwerp, which propagates with 
great shyness), the}' must as soon as they can be seen be reduced to two or three shoots, which are to 
form the canes for next year's crop. Care must be taken to secure them from the action of the wind 
by securing them to stakes, and whenever the preceding year's crop of fruit is over, the removal of the 
old canes will be an advantage to the young ones. Two or three canes may be tied to a single stake at 
the distance of five feet each way. This distance may startle the amateur, but where it can be given 
it is a decided advantage ; and those who cannot afford so much must bend to circumstances and do 
with less. At the time of winter pruning the points of the shoots may be shortened a little, and fresh 
stakes put to them, which completes the process for the season. 
The formation of the flower-buds may be retarded, and a late crop of fruit obtained by cutting down 
some of the shoots to within two or three eyes of the ground. New and vigorous shoots will be pro- 
duced from the eyes, which will not form their fruit till later than the others, and thus the season of 
this desirable fruit may be much prolonged. The double-bearing is a valuable kind, and should have 
the canes of the alternate stools cut down to two or three eyes annually. They will thus give fruit 
almost till Christmas in mild seasons. The finest fruit is in all cases produced upon the strongest and 
best-i'ipened canes. Full exposure is therefore necessary to obtain these, and single rows will, on 
this account, always be found most productive. 
THE FILBERT. 
A well-managed Filbert should have a clean stem about two feet in height, and be free from 
suckers. The branches should radiate from this central stem, and assume a basin-like form. Its maxi- 
mum of height should not exceed six feet. Filberts in Kent (a county famous for their cultivation) are 
generally planted as rooted suckers, which arc left to grow uncontrolled for two or three years, and 
then cut down — a vigorous shoot results, which must be headed to the desired height, denuded of its 
lower buds, and only three or four shoots encouraged to grow to form the foundation of the future head. 
These must be shortened again at subsequent primings till the required number of branches is obtained, 
introducing a hoop into the head, and regulating the distances of the main branches by means of it. 
The fruit of the Filbert is produced upon the upper part of the young shoots, and upon small 
brandies which spring from the part at which the shoots of the preceding year were shortened. The 
male blossoms (catkins) arc produced separately from the female ones (Fig. IS A represents a shoot in 
which aa are female flowers, and b the male ones). In pruning, care must be exercised to leave a 
sufficient supply of these male blossoms for the fecundation of the female ones ; and therefore the trees 
should not be pruned till curly in the spring, when their developement is obvious. A crop of the fruit 
