320 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



Again, in 1850, Hovey ^ urges the improvement of the native gooseberry 



as follows : 



" The attention of our cultivators is, we are glad to know, now being 

 more directed to this fruit than heretofore, and efforts are making to pro- 

 duce seedhngsof our wild gooseberry, which is not attacked with the mildew, 

 of increased size and quality. The first advance has already been achieved 

 in that prolific variety, Houghton's Seedling, and with this for a parent, 

 we see no reason why we may not in a few years possess native kinds, equal- 

 Hng the foreign ones in size and excellence, and, at the same time, possessing 

 all the hardy and easily ctdtivated properties of the variety we have just 

 named. We have already quite a number of seedlings, and shall look for- 

 ward to their fruiting with much interest." 



These are but two of a considerable number of expressions in the 

 horticultural press of the times calling attention to the desirability of raising 

 seedling gooseberries from native species if the country were to have varieties 

 worth growing. The work of domesticating the American gooseberry 

 seems to have been taken up with considerable interest in several northern 

 states where fruit growing flourished, and a number of new seedlings were 

 shown as recorded in accoimts of the fruit exhibitions of the times. Yet 

 little came of gooseberry breeding for a reason easy to luiderstand as we 

 review the copious pomological literature of the last half of the last century. 

 Raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, strawberries, grapes, and native 

 plums gave quicker and more abundant returns to breeders of fruits than the 

 gooseberry and so claimed the attention of pomologists. Among many 

 treasures discovered in our domestic flora for development, the gooseberry 

 seemed to the workers of the times of little importance. 



Of the several seedlings immediately following Houghton, which we 

 have set as the first landmark in the domestication of the American goose- 

 berry. Downing is the only one noteworthy. It originated with Charles 

 Downing about 1855, as a seedling of Houghton and immediately became 

 popular. For seventy-five years it has been more commonly grown than 

 any other variety of this fruit in the United States, although it ought long 

 ago to have been discarded for any one of several better kinds which the 

 country now offers. The following is the first discussion and description 

 of the Downing, valuable also as showing the status of gooseberries at the 

 time the article was written, and of further interest as coming from the pen 

 of the noted European pomologist, Louis Berckmans who had some years 

 before come to America to live. Mr. Berckmans^ says: 



• Ibid. 16:114. 1850. 



^ Horticulturist 12:^62. 1857. 



