AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
827 
out. These bushes, however, vary much 
in character, according to their age, the pre¬ 
vious mode of pruning, and to the soil. Old 
trees are apt to be of considerable height, 
and in the attempts made occasionally to 
keep them within bounds in this respect, it 
may turn out that much shortening-back has 
to be resorted to, and this has, of course, a 
tendency to cause the main twigs to branch 
exceedingly, and by much shading to render 
the bearing qualities of young shoots, lower 
down, to greatly diminish. In this case—I 
would point to an error in practice—the finest 
fruit is produced upon clean young shoots, 
which should neither be excessively long 
nor stumpy; very long growths generally 
have great length between the buds, and, to 
say nothing of the character of the fruit, this 
has a tendency to cause the bush to attain 
inconvenient height speedily. Very stumpy 
wood, the lateral produce of strong branch¬ 
es, pruned back as before observed, is inju¬ 
rious to the successional shoots which are 
always springing from below to renew the 
bush, and these are chiefly the result of cut¬ 
ting back main branches into older wood; 
a thing to be avoided. 
Let the pruner, therefore, prefer wood of 
a medium character, certainly rather strong 
than otherwise, and when branches become 
so coarse and tall as to peril the welfare of 
the other portions of the bush, rather let 
them be totally removed than stumped back ; 
thus avoiding the production of those thick 
bunches of laterals complained of. I have 
no doubt, however, of this rejected wood 
producing fine fruit; but then, if such is to 
be encouraged, why the other class of 
shoots must undergo considerable sacrifice, 
and the result will speedily be tall, gawky, 
and unwiedly bushes, shading much ground. 
The pruner, therefore, must go round his 
bush and see what is its general character; 
whether it has been well-used or ill-used ; 
whether it merely needs ordinary handling, 
or whether a sacrifice is to be made in con¬ 
sequence of previous bad management; such 
sacrifice generally consisting in cutting away, 
occasionally whole branches, if needs be. 
When bushes have been properly man¬ 
aged, the labors of the pruner are both light 
and simple. He has, of course, to thin out 
the young spray where too thick ; and now 
the misinformed will naturally desire to know 
at what average distance the young shoots 
of healthy bushes may be placed ; for, in¬ 
deed, this constitutes one of the chief points 
in the affair. I should say, then, that the 
young shoots shonld not be nearer than three 
inches ; this, is, indeed, rather close prac¬ 
tice. In this, as in most other fruits, the 
size and closeness of the foliage is a prime 
consideration, and, of course, has close refer¬ 
ence to the degree of light admitted to the 
various portions of the tree or bush, and its 
equalization. 
And now about shortening. There are 
those who are averse to all shortening-in 
the black currant ; but I can not confess to 
being one of them, although I would avoid it 
as much as possible, for reasons before 
stated. When any portion of the bush is 
extended beyond the bounds of convenience, 
I say, reduce it; but only in such cases. 
The chief consideration, after admitting the 
average distance of the young shoots, is to 
sustain a certain amount of symmetry in the 
bush, for this of necessity involves a regular 
supply of good wood from the base to the 
top. It must be here remarked, that since 
the black currant bears its principal crop on 
the annual shoots, rather than on the spurs, 
means, of course, must be taken by the pru¬ 
ner to excite and sustain a regular sprink¬ 
ling of such wood all over the tree; and in 
this case there is not the same necessity for 
keeping the middle of the bush open, as in the 
red and white currant and gooseberry. 
The red and white currants bear princi¬ 
pally on the “ spurs,” as they are called; 
these are produced abundantly on the sides 
of the main stems, of which there are gener¬ 
ally nearly a dozen in the well formed bush. 
So that our readers will at once see that the 
mode of pruning must differ widely from the 
black currant and gooseberry. These bush¬ 
es are generally trained, from the first, with 
a given number of branches, which are not 
often increased afterward; if they are, it is 
on account of the great eligibility as to posi¬ 
tion that they occupy. The first business 
of the pruner is to run his knife up these 
main stems, which will be found studded 
with spurs—some in groups, others scat¬ 
tered ; and from these the future crop must 
be obtained. 
Every lateral spur must be pruned back to 
about half an inch, as near as possible ; but 
while making use of the term every, which 
is, I confess, rather too sweeping let me 
observe that exceptions frequently occur. 
To understand these things, our worthy 
readers must just take a close examination 
for five minutes of these branches and their 
spurs. They will find that the rule, with 
strong and healthy bushes, is to produce 
abundance of side twigs or lateral spray; 
and that, as an exception, little diminutive¬ 
looking twigs are produced amid these clus¬ 
ters of spray, which are of a sort of inter¬ 
mediate character, appearing as though na¬ 
ture, in forming them originally for shoots, 
had changed her mind suddenly, and clothed 
them with embryo blossom-buds. Such 
lengthening spurs are generally about two 
inches in length, and as full of blossom-buds 
as they can be. Some of the finest will be 
produced from these, and amid the devasta¬ 
tions going on with the knife, they must, 
every one, be retained unpruned. Lastly, 
all the side-spurring being completed, the 
tops or leaders of the branches must be 
shortened, in order to cause them to develop 
side-spurs as they proceed, which long lead¬ 
ers will not do without the primer’s assist¬ 
ance ; about six to eight inches each year 
may thus be left, the other, or point of the 
shoot pruned. 
After pruning, I advise the same practice 
as with the goosberries, providing they have 
been infested with the caterpillar; other¬ 
wise, it will suffice to give them a slight 
surface-dressing of any different material 
containing some half-decayed vegetable mat¬ 
ter, for unless weakly, they do not require 
much of what is termed muck. It may here 
be observed that the white Dutch kind is of 
weaker growth than the reds, and deserves 
a more liberal soil. Those who have not 
got Knight’s sweet red should plant some ; 
they are sweeter than others. 
The Cottage Gardener.] It. Eriunoton. 
Margaret Fuller somewhere beautifully 
says : “ It is a marvel whence this perfect 
flower—the water-lily—derives its loveli¬ 
ness and perfume, springing as it does from 
the black mud over which the river sleeps, 
and where lurk the slimy eel and speckled 
frog, and the mud turtle, whom continual 
washing cannot cleanse. It is the very same 
black mud out of which the yellow lily sucks 
its obscene life and noisome odor. Thus we 
see, too, in the world, that some persons as¬ 
similate only what is ugly and evil from the 
same moral circumstances which supply 
good and beautiful results—the fragrance of 
celestial flowers—to the daily life of others.” 
A gentleman, at a late fashionable assem¬ 
bly being asked which of the ladies of the 
company he thought the most beautiful, re¬ 
plied, “Whymadam, indeed they are all 
beautiful; but that lady, I think, (pointing 
to Miss Bruce, who was dressed in the ex¬ 
treme of fashion,) outstrips them all.” 
For the American Agriculturist. 
FORCING STRAWBERRIES 
As the time of forcing this delicious fruit 
is rapidly approaching, the following hints, if 
strictly followed, will insure success. 
The plants, while just starting, should be 
first placed in a green-house or vinery about 
a foot from the glass; those put in the vinery 
will not need moving till after fruiting. 
Twenty or thirty more may be put in than 
are actually required, as some few may not 
truss up satisfactorily. I take the oppor¬ 
tunity of mentioning here, that two or three 
year old plants are useless for forcing. 
Some of my brother gardeners lift plants of 
this age from the beds, with the expectation 
of having a fine crop of fruit, in which they 
are greatly disappointed. They will look 
healthy and show the truss in the heart of 
the plant, but will not go any further. A 
solitary flower may perhaps burst forth, but 
this invariably goes blind, so that no fruit is 
obtained. In fact, out of a hundred plants 
of this description, they are fortunate who 
obtain as much fruit. 
The plants for forcing should be treated 
in the following manner : As early as run¬ 
ners can be had, they should be put in small 
60-sized pots, filled with rich mould, and a 
stone put on them to prevent the wind from 
moving them, and often watered to induce 
them to root quickly. When they are well 
rooted they may be cut from the parent 
plant, the pots removed to a shady place, 
and shifting into their fruiting pots ; the size 
32d are sufficient for this purpose. They 
may be kept growing by applying weak 
liquid manure, twice a week till late in the 
fall, when they may be stacked away in a 
dry shed till wanted for use. For this pur¬ 
pose procure some coal ashes, spread them 
on the floor of the shed about two feet wide, 
upon which place the pots sideways, having 
the bottoms toward each other, and leaving a 
space of three inches between, which may 
be filled with ashes. One row being com¬ 
pleted, another may be placed on the first, 
and the space filled as before ; this may be 
continued to any height required. When 
severe weather sets in, straw may be put over 
them to keep off the worst of the frost. Be¬ 
ing kept dry in this manner, they start much 
more vigorously than when treated other¬ 
wise. After being forced they may be 
planted in beds in the open ground, where 
they will produce a crop of fruit in the fall. 
I need here say nothing about their treat¬ 
ment in beds, as the article in your last pa¬ 
per, by Mr. Saunders, sets forth all that is 
required in their management. 
Plants, treated as above, will produce a 
fine crop of well-flavored fruit, scarcely in¬ 
ferior to those out of doors. Shelves sus¬ 
pended from the roof of the house by means 
of iron are best. Those placed in the green¬ 
house must be moved into a warmer house, 
in order to have their fruit set, except the 
last crop, which will do very well, the weath¬ 
er then being warmer; all the air possible 
must be admitted. At the time of setting 
apply wet, liquid manure twice a week till 
they are in bloom, commencing again as 
soon as set, and continuing until the fruit be¬ 
gins to change color, when it must be left 
off, or the fruit will not have that delicious 
flavor for which it is famed. 
This little plant needs only proper man¬ 
agement to produce an excellent crop of 
forced fruit at a season when nothing else 
can be obtained. I could point my finger to 
more than one place, where forcing it has 
been discontinued solely through misman¬ 
agement. I hope to see, in time, when gar¬ 
deners will turn their attention to this little 
plant, as it is a fine sight to see shelves 
lined with its delicious fruit in a green-house. 
Belu’ort, L. I. W. 
