Currant bush

“ No fruit crop will respond more readily to good care than the currant. Clean cultivation and a liberal use of manure or fertilizers will certainly be followed by well-paying crops. One-or two-year-old plants may be set, 4 by 6 feet. Trim the bush by cutting off most of the suckers below the surface of the ground. The currant should have cool moist soil. If the season is dry, a mulch of straw or leaves will assist the plants to establish themselves.
Currants are easily propagated by mature cuttings of the new or previous year’s canes. ”

“ There are three species of currant borers with unpronounceable names. Their presence is shown by yellow foliage and withering fruit in summer, and by brown, shrivelled branches in winter. Cutting out and burning is the only remedy. Usually, a vigorous bush will outgrow the attacks of this enemy; and good cultivation gives vigor, and also disturbs and brings to the surface the worms that have entered the soil to undergo their transformation. From first to last, tonic treatment supplements and renders more effective our direct efforts to destroy diseases and enemies. ”

“ The Flowering Currant is a delightful shrub, [Pg 63] and one that anyone can grow, and one that will flourish anywhere. It is very pleasing in habit, without any attention in the way of training. Its branches spread gracefully in all directions from the centre of the bush, and grow to a length of six or seven feet. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVI CURRANTS, CONTINUED—PROPAGATION, VARIETIES Pruning naturally leads to the subject of propagation, for much of that which is cut away, so far from being useless, is often of great value to the nurseryman; and there are few who grow this fruit for market who could not turn many an honest penny if they would take the refuse young wood of the previous summer's growth and develop it into salable bushes. In most instances a market would be found in their own neighborhood. Nothing is easier than success in raising young currant bushes, except failure. ”

“ The Large Dutch Red, and White, are much larger varieties and generally preferred in the best Eastern gardens. Every farmer, if he has nothing else, has a long row of currant bushes, and gets, usually, five times as many currants as he can consume. Very few fruits have so few diseases incident to them as the currant. It is not infested with worms, its fruit is subject to no blight, it bears every year, is rarely affected either by severe winters or late frosts, and we do not remember a season in our lives when there was not, at least, a partial currant crop. ”

“ Currant-bushes grow readily from cuttings. Insert a piece of half-ripened wood five or six inches long into the ground and it will almost invariably take root. In order to keep this plant in healthy bearing condition it should be pruned rather severely each season. Cut away all weak wood, and encourage the production of strong new shoots, from which fruit will be borne next season. Remove a good share of the old branches after they have ripened the present season's crop. ”

“ The Abraxas ribearia of Fitch (Fig. 245, moth) , the well-known Currant worm, defoliates whole rows of currant bushes. This pretty caterpillar may be easily known by its body being of a deep golden color, spotted with black. The bushes should be visited morning, noon and night, and thoroughly shaken (killing the caterpillars) and sprinkled with ashes.
Among multitudes of beetles (Coleoptera) injurious to the crops, are the May beetle (Lachnosterna fusca, Fig. 246) , whose larva, a large white grub, is injurious to the roots of grass and to strawberry vines. ”

“ Not only do currants and gooseberries require similar treatment and cultivation, but they also have a common enemy that must be vigilantly guarded against, or the bushes will be defoliated in many localities almost before its existence is known. After an absence of a few days I have found some of my bushes stripped of every leaf. When this happens, the fruit is comparatively worthless. Foliage is as necessary to a plant as are lungs to a man. It is not essential that I should go into the natural history of the currant worm and moth. ”

“ Currants are raised from cuttings generally about a foot long, all the buds from which are taken off, except five or six at the top; and the cutting is then firmly fixed in the soil about six inches deep. The currant bears chiefly on spurs of the old wood, so that these only are generally [Pg 265] left in the winter pruning. The currant is very hardy, and will grow in any soil or situation, even under the drip of trees.
Raspberries always bear on the young shoots, so that the art of pruning them consists in cutting out the old wood. ”

“ Though there were outcrops of rocks near two of its haunts at Lake Austin, and again a huge outcropping quartz reef at Lake Way, I never saw an individual amongst the debris surrounding these formations. The species of salt-bush it prefers grows to a height of about 3 feet. The leaf is very small and sappy, and at fruiting season it has a small bright red berry, which is not unpleasant to the taste. When bruised the leaves have a scent like common garden sage. These bushes always grow singly, and generally on rich alluvial flats, but also on low sand-hills. ”

“ They were in every good-sized bush, in the meer-cat burrows that honeycombed the hollows, coiled round the tufts of toa grass—in fact, they swarmed.
We had hoped to reach the big pan by nightfall, as there was a big krantz there where we could shelter; but it became evident that we could not do so, and we turned aside towards a small pan where a few bushes gave promise of a fire at least, for it became evident that we were in for rain again. ”

“ This seems very absurd when we remember the important place held in the domestic economy by the currant, and how greatly it improves under decent treatment. If it demanded the attention which a cabbage-plant requires, it would be given; but the currant belongs to that small class of creatures which permit themselves to be used when wanted, and snubbed, neglected, and imposed upon at other times. It is known that the bushes will manage to exist, and do the Very best they can, no matter how badly treated; and average human nature has ever taken advantage of such traits, to its continuous loss. ”

“ A deep, sandy soil will generally grow the best crop of berries, while a clay soil tends to produce rust. Good cultivation, good soil, and a judicious use of manure make stout and vigorous canes, with a crop of berries in increased ratio."
Indiana correspondent Orange County Farmer: I have had a good deal of experience in propagating currants. I always plant my currant cuttings in the fall as soon as the leaves fall off. They will make durable roots two to four inches long the same fall, while the buds remain dormant. ”

“ The bushes are now bare of fruit, but ruddy with their autumn blushes, tingeing the surface of the knoll with a delicate coral pink. This thicket extends far down upon the slope, even encroaching upon the wheel-ruts of the lane, and across again, until cut short by an ancient tumbling line of lichen-covered stones, a landmark which has long since yielded up its claim as a barrier of protection to the old orchard it encloses, now only a moss-grown pile, with every chink and crevice a nestling-place of some searching tendril, fern, or clambering vine. ”

“ Many of the flowering shrubs of Oregon and Washington have already been mentioned in the chapter on forests. One of the first to blossom is the red flowering currant ( Ribes sanguine- rum) , which puts forth its flowers before its leaves are fully expanded, like the Judas-tree of the Missouri Vallejo which it resembles in color. There appear to be two or three varieties of this species, as the color varies from a pale rose-color to a full crimson. The flower is arranged in clusters upon a slender stem like the green blossoms of the garden currant, but is much larger, and of a different shape. ”

“ By far the greater number of bushes in the undergrowth are thickly covered with thorns, while the mimosas towering above them are armed with long, hard, sharp spines, and even the grasses have burr-like seed-capsules covered with fine prickles, or ears set with sharp hooks, so that every attempt to penetrate the forest from the path is foiled by a thousand obstacles. The bird the huntsman’s gun has brought down is lost to him because in falling it is caught in a bush which he cannot reach without an amount of exertion quite out of proportion to the object ”

“ We advise those who are careful in such matters to train their currants to a tree form; let a cutting be set, rub out all the buds but two or three at the top; at about twelve or fifteen inches from the earth let the branches put out, and never permit suckers to grow, or branches to stand lower than this. The difficulty which some have found in tree currants, that they are top-heavy and require staking to prevent their being bent by winds and their own weight, arises from having the stem too long. ”

“ It was the familiar type of African bush—dry, waterless, gravel and sand surface, grown with low wide-branching thorn-trees at fairly open intervals, filled in with a dense undergrowth of smaller shrubs, sisal, cactus, and grasses, until only narrow sand washes, or game paths, remain open, for short intervals, here and there. Through this one wends his way, zigzagging, dodging, stooping, and always on the look-out to move along the line of least resistance.
It is rough going, as rough as one will meet with in many travels. ”

“ When a field is left uncultivated, they are the first plants that appear on it; and I frequently observed them in such fields as are annually ploughed, and have corn sown on them. For when these bushes are once rooted, they are not easily extirpated. [163] Such a bush runs out tendrils sometimes four fathoms off its root, and then throws a new root, so that on pulling it up, you meet with roots on both ends. On some old grounds, which had long been uncultivated, there were so many bushes of this kind, that it was very troublesome and dangerous walking in them. ”

“ In three years a good crop should be secured, if the weeds and wild growth are kept down. A crop ranges between 50 to 100 barrels per acre.
Currant.—As the currant is one of the hardiest and most productive of fruits in the North, so is it often neglected, the patch allowed to become foul with grass, never thinned or trimmed, the worms eating the leaves until, in the course of time, the plants weaken and die. Along the fence is no place to plant currants, or, indeed, any other fruit; plant out in the open, at least 5 feet from anything that will interfere with cultivation. ”

“ The hedge of the thickly growing thorn bushes ranged to the height of four feet, making it incumbent upon us to continually assume a stooping position when walking, involving a crick in the back for a good part of the time while there, but the bush was as thick as could be and formed an admirable shelter. ”

“ The black currents, which are larger than the red, ... are reasonable pleasant in eating.”—Voyages, p. 72. Our black currant is Ribes floridum, Herit.,—considered by Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 291) only a variety of R. nigrum, L., the true black currant of the gardens; and our red currant, which I have gathered in the White Mountains,—far below the region of R. rigens, Michx., the more common red currant there,—appears to be undistinguishable from R. rubrum, L. (the red currant of gardens) ; unless, possibly, as an American variety of it. This is probably R. albinervium, Michx. ”

“ To destroy the oïdium, a fungal pest that severely injures the plantations, the vines are dusted, at the time the fruit is maturing, with finely-ground brimstone. The currants when sufficiently ripe are gathered and placed on a drying ground, where they are exposed to the sun in layers half an inch thick; from time to time they are turned and swept into heaps, until they become entirely detached from stalk. They are then packed in large butts for exportation. The wine made from the currant-grape is inferior in quality, but is said to be capable of much improvement. ”

“ Let bushes grow in the natural way, removing all old, decaying branches, and all suckers that rise too far from the parent-bush, and keep the clusters of bushes and leaves thin enough to allow the sun free access, and prevent continued moist [Pg 167] ure in wet weather, which will rot the fruit, and you will find it the cheapest and best. We have seen quite as large and as fine fruit grow on such bushes, that we knew to be more than twenty years old, as we ever saw of the same variety when cultivated in the tree form. ”

“ Wild bushes are nearly always attractive in form and habit when planted in borders and groups. They improve in appearance under cultivation because they are given a better chance to grow. In wild nature there is such fierce struggle for existence that plants usually grow to few or single stems, and they are sparse and scraggly in form; but once given all the room they want and a good soil, they become luxurious, full, and comely. In most home grounds in the country the body of the planting may be very effectively composed of bushes taken from the adjacent woods and fields. ”

“ The currant will stand probably as much abuse as any plant the home gardener will have to deal with. Stuck in a corner, smothered in sod, crowded with old wood, stripped by the currant-worm, it still struggles along from year to year, ever hopefully trying to produce a meager crop of poor fruit. But these are not the sort you want. Although it is so tough, no fruit will respond to good care more quickly. ”