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.  If this is done judiciously, no other variety will bear more profusely or present a fairer object on a July day.

The White Dutch has the well-known characteristics in growth of the common Red Dutch currant, and is inferior only to the White Grape in size.  The fruit is equally transparent, beautiful, mild, and agreeable in flavor, while the bush is enormously productive, and shapely in form, if properly trained and fertilized.

While the white currants are such favorites, I do not undervalue the red.  Indeed, were I restricted to one variety, it should be the old Dutch Red of our fathers, or, more properly, of our grandmothers.  For general house uses I do not think it has yet been surpassed.  It is not so mild in flavor as the white varieties, but there is a richness and sprightliness in its acid that are grateful indeed on a sultry day.  Mingled with the white berries, it makes a beautiful dish, while it has all the culinary qualities which the housekeeper can desire.  If the bush is rigorously pruned and generously enriched, it is unsurpassed in productiveness, and the fruit approaches very nearly to the Cherry currant in size.

I do not recommend the last-named kind for the home garden, unless large, showy fruit counts for more than flavor.  The acid of the Cherry currant, unless very ripe, is harsh and watery.  At best it never acquires an agreeable mildness, to my taste.  The bushes also are not so certainly productive, and usually require skilful pruning and constant fertilizing to be profitable.  For the market, which demands size above all things, the Cherry is the kind to grow; but in the home garden flavor and productiveness are the more important qualities.  Fay’s Prolific is a new sort that has been very highly praised.

The Victoria is an excellent late variety, which, if planted in a sheltered place, prolongs the currant-season well into the autumn.  Spurious kinds are sold under this name.  The true Victoria produces a pale-red fruit with tapering clusters or racemes of berries.  This variety, with the three others recommended, gives the family two red and two white kinds—­all that are needed.  Those who are fond of black currants can, at almost any nursery, procure the Black Naples and Lee’s Prolific.  Either variety will answer all practical purposes.  I confess they are not at all to my taste.