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CULTURE AND TRAINING OF THE GOOSEBERRY. 



BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 



The gooseberry is one of those useful 

 hardy fruits in which everyone pos- 

 sessing a garden has a genuine interest. 

 It does not often meet with the treat- 

 ment it deserves at the hands of cot- 

 tagers, or even of experienced garden- 

 ers, for it will bear an immense deal 

 of rough usage, and still yield good 

 crops of fruit, and yet, between the 

 produce and the appearance of well 

 and ill-managed gooseberry-bushes 

 the difference is as great as in any 

 subject within the range of ordinary 

 gardening. 



The gooseberry requires a generous 

 soil of good texture ; though hardy, 

 it likes moderate shelter, and it never 

 does well, either in a dry hungry sand 

 or in a soil too retentive of moisture. 

 In undrained land, the bark gets hard, 

 the sap is arrested, and the plant soon 

 ceases to be profitable, and in exhaus- 

 ted ground, it fruits badly, and gives 

 but a wretched crop. A deep sandy 

 loam, well manured and mulched dur- 

 ing the growing period, is that in which 

 it does best, but the character of the 

 soil is not so important, if the sub-soil 

 is dry, and the surface regularly dres- 

 sed with manure. From April to 

 August, gooseberry trees prosper, if 

 frequently refreshed with liquid 

 manure, and there is nothing better 

 for the purpose than house sewage 

 sufficiently diluted, poured in tempo- 

 rary trenches cut between the rows 

 for the purpose, and kept covered with 

 grass mowings. When so fed, the 

 berries increase in size considerably, and 

 the trees make strong shoots and set 

 an abundance of bloom-buds. An 

 excess of wood shoots, however, is 

 detrimental to the future welfare of 

 the trees ; a forest of green spray, 

 choking up the centre, not only inter- 

 feres with the formation of fruit-buds, 

 but is an indication of too gross a 

 luxuriance ; and root-pruning or lift- 

 ing the trees should be had recourse 

 to, as well as a careful thinning out to 

 the base, of every superfluous growth. 

 Let us take the several stages of cul- 

 ture briefly, from the present time of 

 year. 



This is the season to plant bushes 

 from the nursery, and also to put in 



cuttings for increase. The Lancashire 

 growers, who are masters of this fruit, 

 plant their bushes in rows, five feet 

 apart every way, but strong growing 

 sorts in compartments may have a 

 space of even six feet from stem to 

 stem, and will be all the more profit- 

 able, through enjoying a good circula- 

 tion of air and affording the cultiva- 

 tor room to move between them, for 

 top-dressing the soil, pruning, &c. 

 To grow really fine fruit, they should 

 be treated orchard fashion, that is, 

 grown apart from other crops, so that 

 their roots may run far and wide, in no 

 danger of being occasionally chopped 

 through with the spade. But many 

 have no other place for them than the 

 borders of kitchen plots, and they 

 generally do well there with fair treat- 

 ment, and they are within reach from 

 the walks for gathering the fruit. To 

 propagate the gooseberry either from 

 seed or cuttings, is the simplest opera- 

 tion possible. Select from the best 

 plants, strong healthy young shoots, 

 cut them clean away to the base ; then 

 cut them back from the top to a foot 

 or fifteen -inches each, preserving the 

 stronger part of the shoot for planting. 

 Cut the base of the canes square across — 

 never plant any fruit-canes with slant- 

 ing heels — and remove with the knife 

 every bud from the base to within two 

 inches of the top. If the cuttings are 

 fifteen inches long and four buds are 

 left at top, the future stem will be a 

 foot high, which will allow of the 

 formation of a neat and useful tree. 

 The removal of the lower buds is to 

 secure a clean stem and prevent the 

 formation of suckers. These are to be 

 planted in close rows four inches deep 

 in any moderately good soil, and at once 

 trodden firm, and during summer kept 

 clean and moderately moist. During 

 summer young growing shoots strike 

 readily in a shady border under a 

 hand-glass, and a season may be saved 

 by striking gooseberry and currant 

 trees early in the season. The first 

 season's growth of the cuttings put in 

 in autumn, should be very little inter- 

 fered with, but to avoid the use of the 

 knife as much as possible — and it is 

 used too much everywhere — rub off 



