IRISH GARDENING. 



37 



voung'er wood, one or two Nears old. The 

 pruning- should, therefore, he carried out with 

 the idea of furnishings the tree with as much 

 young- wood as possible, sufficiently carefully 

 spaced so as to admit sun and air to ripen the 

 fruit and for the pickers to g-et their hands in 

 without too much trouble. 



Now, there is no doubt that we could get a 

 certain amount of a very fine fruit by allowing- 

 the wood to remain in the tree, say, for about 

 three years, continually cutting- it out after that, 

 but such a course effectually prevents us from 

 g-etting a big tree. 



As with apples and plums, so to a less extent 

 with g-ooseberrles — -a certain number of boug-hs 

 must be permitted to remain on the tree thoug-h 

 bearing- no fruit, since they form the foundation, 

 as it were, on which the fruit-bearing- wood is 

 borne. It is, as I said, in a lesser degree, 

 since after some years the vitality in the branch 

 seems to get lower, the wood upon it becomes 

 less vigorous, and in consequence the fruit 

 borne is smaller, so that the branch is best 

 removed to make way for other and better 

 wood. 



In cases like this it will almost always be 

 found that vigorous young wood is shooting 

 from the branch near towards the centre of the 

 tree, so that it is possible to cut back to this 

 voung wood, shorten it, and so lay in a fresh 

 young branch. However, this is by the way, 

 and only to point out the need for different ideas 

 and treatment of a gooseberry tree to an apple 

 or plum. 



While we are on this subject it may be 

 as well to point out that another difference 

 occurs in the shaping oi' the tree. In dealing 

 with apples and plums the idea is to keep a 

 more or less open centre to the tree. To a small 

 extent this must be followed with gooseberries, 

 since the young wood would otherwise over- 

 crowd the centre, but if carried to excess it 

 becomes very dangerous. The danger lies in 

 the fact that the gooseberry blooms very early, 

 when spring frosts are of frequent occurrence ; 

 further, the bloom is open when the leaf is but 

 very little uncurled to protect it ; so that if the 

 open or cup-shaped system is adopted almost 

 all the fruit is exposed to the frost ; while, on 

 the other hand, if the centre is rather more 

 furnished with wood a greater proportion of the 

 fruit has a chance of escaping, since the top 

 ones protect the lower boughs. The trees, 



which preferably should be two years old, when 

 received from the nursery, will probably have a 

 clean stem, nine to twelve inches long, with a 

 head consisting of about four or five branches, 

 anything from eighteen inches to two feet in 

 length. 



Considerable controversy rages concerning 

 the clean stem, many experts insisting that all 

 the buds except the top three or four should be 

 removed from the cutting ; for many years now 

 we have not done so, and have never seen any 

 ill-effects in our trees in consequence, no undue 

 amount of suckers or anything oi the kind. 

 Indeed, we believe that we gain somewhat by 

 not disbudding, for if we have any trees go off 

 with collar rot at the top of the ground we 

 have, following that, usually a vigorous shoot 

 or two coming up to make a new tree. (Of 

 course we only grow trees for our own use, 

 and not for sale to the private trade.) 



To return to the young trees, the four or five 

 shoots should be shortened proportionately to 

 their length and strength to about five to eight 

 inches, cutting to a bud pointing in the direction 

 in which it is desired the new shoot should 

 grow. In most cases this would be an outside 

 bud, since the first shoots are generally somewhat 

 upright, but with pendulous-growing varieties 

 it may be necessary to cut to a bud pointing 

 upwards to endeavour to counteract this 

 tendency. In a similar way it must be a bud 

 pointing left or right, as occasion demands, to 

 obtain more uniform spacing, that the shoot 

 should grow in either direction. Considerable 

 judgment must be used as to the length to 

 shorten to ; as a rough rule I have given about 

 a third, but the pruner must be guided by 

 results. It is necessary to cause the pruiied 

 shoot to break into two or three strong shoots, 

 but if the pruning be too severe the resultant 

 shoots are too gross, and frequently are broken 

 right out by the winds in late summer and 

 autumn. At the next pruning season the tree 

 will probably consist of twelve to fifteen shoots 

 of slightly shorter length than the first. These 

 must again be shortened, though not quite so 

 severely, cutting again to the necessary bud 

 required. 



Probably some oi them will be rather badly 

 placed, either too close to another or cross- 

 ing another ; these must be cut out, leaving 

 a spur about an inch long. The next winter 

 each of the shoots so shortened will have 



