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Page 35
Currant-bushes may be planted five feet apart each way, and at the
same distance, if they are to line a fence. They should be sunk a
few inches deeper in the soil than they stood before, and the
locality be such as to admit of good culture. The soil should
never be permitted to become hard, weedy, or grass-grown. As a
rule, I prefer two-year-old plants, while those of one year's
growth answer nearly as well, if vigorous. If in haste for fruit,
it may be well to get three-year-old plants, unless they have been
dwarfed and enfeebled by neglect. Subsequent culture consists
chiefly in keeping the soil clean, mellow, rich, and therefore
moist. I have named the best fertilizers for the currant; but if
the product of the horse-stable is employed, use it first as a
mulch. It will thus gradually reach the roots. Otherwise it is too
stimulating, and produces a rampant growth of wood rather than
fruit.
Under any circumstances this tendency to produce an undue amount
of wood must be repressed almost as rigorously as in the grape-
vine. The secret of successful currant-culture is richness
beneath, and restriction above. English gardeners are said to have
as complete and minute systems of pruning and training currants as
the grape; but we do not seem to have patience for such detail.
Nor do I regard it as necessary. Our object is an abundant supply
of excellent fruit; and this result can be obtained at a
surprisingly small outlay of time and money, if they are expended
judiciously.
The art of trimming a currant-bush, like that of pruning a grape-
vine, is best learned by observation and experience. One can give
principles rather than lay down rules. Like the vine, the currant
tends to choke itself with a superabundance of wood, which soon
becomes more or less barren. This is truer of some varieties than
of others; but in all instances the judicious use of the pruning-
knife doubles the yield. In view of the supposition that the
leading shoot and all the branches were shortened in one-half when
the plant was set out, I will suggest that early in June it will
be observed that much more wood is forming than can be permitted
to remain. There are weak, crowding shoots which never can be of
any use. If these are cut out at this time, the sap which would go
to mature them will be directed into the valuable parts of the
forming bush. Summer pruning prevents misspent force, and it may
be kept up with great advantage from year to year. This is rarely
done, however; therefore early in spring the bushes must receive a
good annual pruning, and the long shoots and branches be cut well
back, so as to prevent naked reaches of wood. Observe a very
productive bush, and you will see that there are many points
abounding in little side-branches. It is upon these that the fruit
is chiefly borne. A bush left to itself is soon a mass of long,
slender, almost naked stalks, with a little fruit at the ends. The
ideal bush is stocky, open, well branched, admitting light, air,
and sun in every part. There is no crowding and smothering of the
fruit by the foliage. But few clusters are borne on very young
wood, and when this grows old and black, the clusters are small.
Therefore new wood should always be coming on and kept well cut
back, so as to form joints and side-branches; and as other parts
grow old and feeble they should be cut out. Observation and
experience will teach the gardener more than all the rules that
could be written, for he will perceive that he must prune each
bush according to its own individuality.
For practical purposes the bush form is the best in which to grow
currants; but they can easily be made to form pretty little trees
with tops shaped like an umbrella, or any other form we desire.
For instance, I found, one autumn, a shoot about three feet long.
I rubbed off all the buds except the terminal one and three or
four just beneath it, then sunk the lower end of the shoot six
inches into the soil, and tied the part above the ground to a
short stake. The following spring the lower end took root, and the
few buds at the top developed into a small bushy head. Clumps of
miniature currant-trees would make as pretty an ornament for the
garden border as one would wish to see. It should be remembered
that there is a currant as well as an apple borer; but the pests
are not very numerous or destructive, and such little trees may
easily be grown by the hundred.
Clean culture has one disadvantage which must be guarded against.
If the ground under bushes is loose, heavy rains will sometimes so
splash up the soil as to muddy the greater part of the fruit. I
once suffered serious loss in this way, and deserved it; for a
little grass mown from the lawn, or any other litter spread under
and around the bushes just before the fruit ripened, would have
prevented it. It will require but a very few minutes to insure a
clean crop.
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