298 State Horticultural Society. 



season since, but no account has been kept of the number of boxes gath- 

 ered or price per box secured when sold. 



Conclusions. — We have found the raspberries to pay the largest net 

 profit, according to space occupied and labor required to manage them, 

 of any fruit which we have on our small place ; and we have a succes- 

 sion of ripe fruit from the time that raspberries are ripe till late grapes 

 are gone. For the table we have fresh fruit in abundance from early 

 picking of gooseberries until grapes disappear. 



THE GOOSEBERRY. 



The gooseberry bush was found growing wild in the woodland or 

 timbered lands of this county when the white man first penetrated the 

 forest. It humbdy accepts any situation and is ofttimes found growing 

 under the giant oak, where the sun's direct rays scarcely if ever reach it, 

 and again we find it growing on the steep banks of many a water course, 

 creeks and branches ; it thrives well in half shaded places and matures its 

 fruit in such places remarkably well. The gooseberry is an acid berry 

 and is oftimes enjoyed in the late spring and early summer months. 

 There is no pie more enjoyed than gooseberry pie, with its wholesome 

 acid flavor. The fruit is gathered usually before the seeds mature, 

 thereby saving the heavy draw on the bush which nature demands to 

 mature the seed, and most people enjoy the tender young fruit better 

 than after the seed becomes hard and the skin of the berry tough. 



The berries keep perfectly when canned ; canning may be done sev- 

 eral ways, the object being twofold; first sterilization and the exclusion 

 of all germs, after which the berries will keep perfectly for an in- 

 definite time, though, like all other fruit, is better when canned each year. 



The cultivation of the gooseberry is very simple and easy. They 

 grow and thrive best where best treated, and enjoy a rich, mellow, well 

 drained soil with some protection from the winter storms and the spring 

 freezes and thaws. I set the plants in the spring as early as the land 

 will permit, in rows preferably running north and south, and as I have 

 only a limited space of earth surface, I usually set them in the same 

 row with cherry trees, but between the trees — three gooseberries are 

 between each tree — and next in the same row, which seems to protect the 

 berries from sunburning, and my wife thinks the berries are better that 

 are grown under the branches of the cherry tree ; says they mature 

 slower and stay tender longer. 



Cultivation. — I stir the soil about the roots as early as the circum- 

 stances will permit after the frost is out of the soil in the spring. Culti- 

 vate in garden culture with a three-pointed hand hoe, which I find to be 

 an extra good tool for the purpose. While the briars are in bloom they 

 are not bothered by cultivation or otherwise. After the bloom is dropped 



