ON THE

CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY.

CURRANTS and Gooseberries, although of inferior consequence to most other garden fruits, are still of sufficient importance to claim attention; and notwithstanding those fruits are grown on bushes, which may appear to require but little care or art in their management, their produce as much depends on this as other fruits, and is in every respect as much influenced by the mode of cultivation, training, pruning, &c.

Currants and Gooseberries are easily raised from cuttings, which, if planted in the month of November, will seldom fail to take root, and form strong plants the following year.

When the plants are intended to grow ornamentally round borders, &c., they will have a more handsome appearance if raised on a single stem six or eight inches from the ground; in this state they are less incommodious to the gardener in working the borders, &c. round them; and they are easily raised of this form, by taking off all the buds the full length of the cuttings, below where the branches are desired, previous to planting.

But if plants are wanted for beds, to be grown for culinary purposes, the better way is to let them bush, or throw out their stems under or close to the ground, as in this state they are less liable to accident; and when injuries are occasioned, they are more readily made good.

The general management of Currants and Gooseberries, or the mode of pruning, &c. commonly practised, is opposed to Nature, and much time is lost in bringing them to a productive

state.

The disposition of the branches being left to chance, from the random and promiscuous manner in which they are commonly cut, it is generally so irregular and confused, as to render it difficult to reduce them to a proper and uniform shape without much cutting out; and when this is resorted to, the young shoots often grow so luxuriant, as to be much larger than the old branches that produced them; and in this state they are so liable to be broken off by every slight motion or pressure, as seldom to have enough left at the winter pruning to form a handsome head. When properly attended to from their first planting, by regulating their branches, and placing them in such positions that they may advance in their growth without crossing and obstructing each other, those bushes will seldom require cutting back; and their branches being suffered to grow their full length, will not be so liable to accident, and will produce more fruit in two or three years after planting, than they can

do in five or six years, when cut back and stubbed in the usual manner.

Both currants and gooseberries bear their fruit on the last year's shoots, and on short natural studs or spurs.

The gooseberry will continue to bear on the same buds or spurs for many years, when the branches are kept free, and duly exposed; the only care, therefore, those will require, is, that the branches be so disposed that they may be suffered to grow their full length; and this may always be done by the assistance of a few stakes to confine the branches the first years of their growth. The collateral shoots must always be taken off close to the place from whence they spring, and this is done with the least trouble and the best effect by rubbing off the shoots when they are two or three inches long, perhaps in April or May.

The same buds which produce currants one year, do not always produce them the next, particularly those on the collaterals, as these are often without leaf or wood buds, for unless there is a leaf or wood bud on the branch, beyond the fruit, it will not come to perfection; the mode of pruning those, must therefore be something different from gooseberries.

The first formation of the currant bush must be regulated much in the same manner as the gooseberry; but as the branches grow more erect, they will require more attention, and be more benefited by the use of stakes to fix them in a reclining

position, and at sufficient distances from each other; the collaterals should not be taken off until about the month of July or August, and then they should not be rubbed off, like the gooseberries, but cut, so as to leave a stub or spur of two or three buds, which buds will not only bear fruit the next year, but throw out others, which (when the main branches are kept properly separated) will continue to form a close mass of fruit buds every year.

To make the most of both gooseberry and currant bushes, and to apply the whole produce of the roots to the formation of bearing branches and the finest fruit, and at the same time to keep them within a narrow compass and secure from accidental injuries, the most certain method will be to train them in the manner directed for spiral espaliers, as shewn in plate 3.

The stakes and tying will be an additional expence; but the additional produce, both in quantity and quality of the fruit, will more than overpay it, and with good profit.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

BLIGHT AND DISEASES OF TREES,

WITH A

COMMENTARY ON FORSYTH, KNIGHT, &c.

THE HE injuries and diseases to which fruit trees are subject are various, and often difficult to be accounted for; but unless in cases of obstruction or failure in their growth and produce, we can discover the cause, it will be to little purpose we attempt a remedy.

Blight is a term in very general use, but which is not easily defined.

Whenever a tree is obstructed in its growth, it matters not from what cause, it is said to be blighted; if the leaves, branches, blossoms, or fruit are cast off or destroyed by insects, it is said to be blighted; if it be checked or destroyed by frost, it is blighted; and if, from a stagnation of water about the roots, the trunk and branches become diseased, it is blighted; and, in fact, in all cases of failure, blight is the assigned cause; so that to attempt explaining a general remedy for, or preventive of blight, would be ridiculous and absurd.