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HOW TO RAISE THE BEST GOOSEBERRIES. 



HOW TO RAISE THE BEST GOOSEBERRIES. 



BY A JERSEYMAN. 



g,R — I hear almost every body complain of 

 the diflicuUy of raising fine gooseberries. 

 The bushes, to be sure, grow easily enough. 

 It is not difficult to get from the nurseries 

 the prime English sorts — sorts with large 

 and high flavored fruit, really worth grow- 

 ing. But there seems to be something 

 wrong in our warm and dry climate, that is 

 utter ruin to the fruit. A sort of sciirf ox 

 wz'Zdcitf settles on the berries as soon as they 

 are about a quarter grown, and destroys the 

 whole crop. Once attacked by this pest, 

 the berries are past cure, and quite worth- 

 less. 



Now I have been very lucky in my goose- 

 berry growing, and it has struck me that 

 a few words about my way of doing the 

 thing might help some unfortunate being, 

 fond of gooseberries, but who does not ki ow 

 how to raise them. 



I plant my gooseberry trees in a -ong 

 border on the north side of a paling fence. 

 Before planting them, I trench the border 

 two feet deep, as I know that the roots of 

 the gooseberry love plenty of moisture all 

 summer, which they can never get in the 

 soil, unless it is made deeper than common, 

 by trenching it well. For manure, 1 give 

 it a heavy dressing of common stable ma- 

 nure, when the trenching is going forward. 



I then put out my gooseberry plants ear- 

 ly in the spring, or early in the fall, as may 

 be most convenient to me. I have not 

 found that the season makes much differ- 

 ence. I plant them about four feet apart 

 every way, and always keep them trimmed 

 to clean single stems like small trees. 



There arehundredsof sorts of " prize goose- 

 berries" raised in Lancashire, but they are 



not all suited to this climate. I have tried 

 a great many and have settled down upon 

 Uvo, which, taking all in all, I think not sur- 

 passed bv any others for this climate. 

 These are the Crown Boh, a grand old red 

 gooseberry of excellent size, always bears 

 good crops and possesses 9 hjgh flavor ; and 

 the White Smith, quite as good among the 

 whites, as Crown Bob is among the reds. 

 There are no doubt many others, very good 

 ones, in the catalogues, but there are none 

 better, and as there is not much .ariety in 

 gooseberry flavor, I am quite content with 

 these two prime sorts, that will satisfy any 

 body, however fastidious. 



I prune my gooseberries among the very 

 first bits of garden work done in the open- 

 ing of spring. I usually cut out about one- 

 third of the wood made the previous sum- 

 mer. As soon after that as the ground is 

 in working order, I give the border where 

 they grow the dressing for the season, after 

 this fashion. I first provide myself with a 

 couple of barrels of soot, as this is my favo- 

 rite manure for this shrub. It is easily 

 enough collected during the winter, with 

 the help of a chimney-sweeper in my neigh- 

 borhood, and I suppose every housekeeper 

 might save enough for the gooseberries in his 

 own garden, if he is not so large a goose- 

 berry grower as myself, out of the sweep- 

 ings of the chimneys and stove pipes about 

 his own premises. 



The gooseberry border is first nicely dug 

 over. I then scatter a light dressing of the 

 soot over the whole surface, and under the 

 bushes, at the rate of a quart to each goose- 

 berry bush. This gives them plenty of stimu- 

 lus for the season's growth, for soot is a very 



