322 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



are most prominent, but English gooseberries, or hybrids which show their 

 characters more prominently than those of the natives, are more and more 

 taking the place of Houghton and Downing by the few who give attention 

 to this fruit. Fungicides keep the mildew in check and hybrids are being 

 bred more resistant to it. 



Meanwhile it cannot be said that the gooseberry is gaining in poptilarity 

 in America. English varieties grown in America and the sorts which have 

 originated here are far short of the European standards for this fruit, and 

 with a greater wealth of home-grown and exotic fruits than any other part 

 of the world, the gooseberry languishes in popular favor. American customs 

 in using the fruit retard rather than enhance its popularity; the gooseberry 

 is usually used here only in the green state and as a sauce, whereas the Euro- 

 peans find ripe gooseberries as delectable as any other fruit for dessert. 

 With these statements as to why gooseberries are not largely planted in 

 the United States, let us see from the Census of 1920 what the country has 

 in its gooseberry plantations. 



Census figures show the gooseberry to be the least important of the 

 five fruits discussed in The Small Fruits of New York. In the census of 

 1920 it is not sufficiently important to be given a separate classification, 

 but is lumped imder the heading of " Other berries " with the statement 

 that these are chiefly gooseberries. Scattered plants of " other berries " 

 brought into acreage figures in 19 19 amount for the whole country only 

 to 5,450 acres, 365 acres less than in 1909, or a loss of 6.7 per cent in the ten 

 years. 



What is the future of the gooseberry in America? The immediate 

 future is not bright. The causes that have kept it from becoming a 

 prominent fruit still exist. These are, to recapitvilate, mildew, poor varie- 

 ties, the use of green fruits to the neglect of ripe ones, and the disposition 

 of nurserymen to push the sale of the Houghton and Downing to the exclu- 

 sion of sorts with larger, handsomer, and better-flavored fruits. The last, 

 it is certain, is the chief cause of the unpopularity, steadily increasing, of 

 the gooseberry in this country. The gooseberry, more than any other berry, 

 in America at least, is a home rather than a market fruit. Plants are sup- 

 plied growers by nursery agents. The gooseberry will not become popular 

 until, as in large parts of Eiirope, every garden is supplied with choicely 

 good varieties instead of the two or three varieties now to be had with their 

 thorny bushes and small, hard, sour, and insipid fruits. 



