6 ^Liuci tciiii, Gooseberries. 



American G-ooseberries. 



BY II. E. HOOKER. 



THE gooseberry has never assumed a very important position among American 

 fruits, because attention has been given mainly to the foreign so'rts which do not 

 prove well adapted to our climate ; some of these foreign sorts are of fine size and 

 good quality ; there is also a variety differing in size, color, habit of growth, and 

 other characteristics, giving a valuable and agreeable diversity and adaptation to 

 numerous uses. 



The superiority of foreign sorts is due to the efforts of cultivators in securing new 

 and improved varieties by raising numerous seedlings, and then saving and multiply- 

 ing by cuttings, and disseminating the best. This has been done until there seems 

 little more to be desired from these foreigners, except adaptation to our climate ; 

 and this difficulty I believe to be insuperable. So long as we adhere to those raised 

 from seed grown abroad, and adjusted by nature to a different climate from ours, they 

 may give pretty good results occasionally, but as a whole they will disappoint us. 



The general public will derive small benefit from the gooseberry until we produce 

 from seed of the wild American stock, or crosses with it, a multitude of new in- 

 dividuals from which to select and propagate those having the qualities we most 

 desire and of special value to us. 



I was struck with the fact that we had accomplished very little yet in improving 

 this fruit, by finding, on the coast of Maine, an abundance of wild gooseberries with 

 fruit nearly as large and good as the Houghton ; these were growing without care 

 from man, among rocks and in poor soils. If we have stock as good as this to start 

 with, it does not speak well for us that we have thus far done so little to secure 

 superior varieties adapted to the wants and tastes of our citizens. 



Experience with other fruits shows that we must look to native grown seedlings for 

 our most excellent and profitable sorts. Little can be done to change or modify 

 the constitution of a plant by special care or culture ; we must go to the seed for all 

 reliable variations ; and when any disposition to vary from the original wild type is 

 discovered, we must follow it up, and, in the end, secure the results most desired. 



So far as I know the gooseberry has not in this country produced many new and 

 promising variations ; it has held well to the habit of all wild fruits : not to show 

 much change, until, in the hand of man, those conditions are secured which give safety 

 to, and use for, individuals whose merit is not so much in hardihood of constitution, 

 as beauty, abundance, and excellence of fruit. None of our best cultivated varieties 

 of fruits would survive for a single century, if a wilderness were again, to overspread 

 the land, and the fruits be left to contend with the wild condition of things. 



The only improved American Gooseberries which have come under my observation, 

 are the following: 



1st. The " Houghton Seedling." — This strongly resembles the wild type, but is 

 more productive, somewhat larger, and better flavored than those found growing 

 wild, retaining the vigor and hardiness of the original. 



2d. The " Mountain." — This is very different from the first, and offers peculiarities 

 of merit quite distinct and interesting. The plant grows tall, and very large, 

 abundantly productive of fruit varying from large to quite small upon the same 



