" It is overripe, water-
soaked currants that break up families and demolish household
gods. Let me also add another fact, as true as it is strange, that
white currants make red jelly; therefore give the pearly fruit
ample space in the garden.
In passing to the consideration of varieties, it is quite natural
in this connection to mention the white sorts first. I know that
people are not yet sufficiently educated to demand white currants
of their grocers; but the home garden is as much beyond the
grocer's stall as the home is better than a boarding-house. There
is no reason why free people in the country should be slaves to
conventionalities, prejudices, and traditions. If white currants
ARE sweeter, more delicious and beautiful than the red, why, so
they are. Therefore let us plant them abundantly.
If there is to be a queen among the currants, the White Grape is
entitled to the crown. When placed upon the table, the dish
appears heaped with translucent pearls. The sharp acid of the red
varieties is absent, and you feel that if you could live upon them
for a time, your blood would grow pure, if not "blue."
The bush producing this exquisite fruit is like an uncouth-looking
poet who gives beauty from an inner life, but disappoints in
externals. It is low-branching and unshapely, and must be forced
into good form--the bush, not the poet--by the pruning-knife.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145