310 



JOUBNAL OP HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ AprU 10, 1874. 



all the trees. Plums and Apples are covered with bloota and 

 bloom-buds, giving us hopes of having a bountiful fruit year. 

 — 11. GiLBEKT, Burijhley Gardens, Stamford. 



GEOWING GOOSEBERBIES FOR MARKET AND 



EXHIBITION. 



"A Eetiked Mechanic" informs us that he purposes to 

 devote an acre, which has been left him by wU], to growing 

 Gooseberries for the above purposes, and to rearing poultry 

 for profit. He asks for information relative to Gooseberry- 

 culture ; and as part of his acre is walled, we reprint the 

 following from one of our early volumes, and from one of Mr. 

 Loudon's publications. 



For training against the wall, select clean, healthy, and 

 strong plants, with a clear stem a foot in height, and having 

 chosen two shoots of uniform strength, the one diverging to 

 the right and the other to the left, cut away all the remaining 

 shoots ; and having planted the requisite number of trees 4 feet 

 from stem to stem, nail them. If the space to be covered is 

 more than G feet in height the plants should not be so wide 

 apart ; 3 feet for an S-feet and 2 feet for a 10-feet wall. The 

 following summer all the shoots on the horizontals are to be 

 rubbed off, except one to the right and one to the left of the 

 stem, and 4 inches on either side of it ; and as many more 

 as the horizontals will hold should be left at 8 inches apart 

 from these two shoots and the same distance from each other. 

 The horizontal branches are to b^ pruned to about half their 

 length if weak, one-third if moderately strong, and left their 

 full length if very strong. The shoots from the extremity of 

 the horizontal branches are suffered to grow at their freedom, 

 and, to throw more vigour into them, the perpendicular shoots, 

 if any, are stopped to three leaves ; but when the horizontal 

 shoots have grown 1 foot 8 inches on each side of the stem 

 they are brought down to the horizontal line, and all eyes and 

 shoots rubbed off, except, as before stated, those along them 

 at 8 inches apart. At each of these dis- 

 tances a shoot is to be encouraged and 

 trained upright. Sufficient should be left in 

 pruning or disbudding at the places desired, 

 in order to be prepared for emergencies. 



At planting the tree will appear thus — 

 fip. 1. In the autumn following the tree 

 will be pruned and trained so as to appear 

 like Jiij. 2, if the shoots are trained 8 inches apart, or like 

 fii). 3 if left C inches distant. 



In the second season the shoots are trained upright, and 

 allowed to grow at their free will , 

 only nailing them up so as to 

 prevent their being broken by 

 winds ; and if any side shoots 

 appear they are stopped to three 

 eyes in July, but the leaders 

 must not be stopped. They 



Fig. 1. 



(|_4^jg^_^J 



Fig. 2. 



(J— . 1111 ifli iiiiTri^iiiii 



Kg. 3. 



should, however, each be cut in the autumn to a foot in 

 length (Jiff. 4), and so on year after year until the space is 

 covered. 



All foreright or breast- 

 feed shoots should be re- 

 moved as fast as they appear 

 in after years, retaining the 

 short spurs only ; for if 

 the shoots be allowed to 

 grow they will appropriate 

 in the formation of useless parts the sap which ought to be 

 expended on the fruit and for the formation of fruit spurs. 

 It is too late to remove shoots in autumn, for they have then 



done all the harm they 

 can, and they ought not 

 to remain on the trees 

 longer than for two or 

 three leaves to form, 

 when they should be 

 stopped. This encou- 

 rages the formation of 

 fruit spurs, and admits 



Fig. 4. 



light and air to the fruit and leaves. 



When the old branches are worn out a young shoot should 

 be encouraged near the bottom ; and when the fruit is gathered 

 the old branch may be cut out, and the fresh one trained in 

 -ts place. Six shoots 8 inches apart are ample to leave on 

 '.rees planted 4 feet apart, or at most eight ; but when the 



Fig. 5. 



shoots are only 6 inches apart the leaves on the spurs shade 

 their neighbours too much, and the fruit is, consequently, in- 

 different in flavour. Three, or at the most four, shoots from 

 one tree are ample to train up a wall more than C feet high, 

 and even then the trees are apt to become deficient of wood' 

 at the bottom. Six feet is quite high enough to train Goose- 

 berries ; and although they have been grown as standards to 

 from 4 to G feet high, they are but bushes, and are not suited 

 for growing as wall trees. 



Mr. Mathias Saul, of Lancaster, details the following as 

 the plan of training the Gooseberry trees adopted by those- 

 growers who wish to have large and heavy fruit 

 for the prize-shows. As all the fruit grow from 

 the under side of the branches, the plan adopted 

 for first putting the tree in a training state is to 

 have a few hooked sticks (jiff. 5) and forked sticks 

 Ififf- G), the former to hold down the branches that 

 are inclined to grow upwards, the latter to support 

 those which are inclined to grow downwards. The 

 plant (fig. 7) has been trained by such sticks. It 

 consists of three shoots spreading regularly, and 

 nearly horizontally, outwards. Next autumn these 

 three shoots will have produced a number of side 

 shoots, most of which may be shortened to one 

 eye, and the others reduced to one-half of their 

 length. No shoots should be left either at the 

 origin or the extremities of the branches, but only 

 at the sides; the fewer the number of shoots, and Fi^.G. 

 the younger the tree, the larger will be the fruit. 



At the next pruning season — viz., November, the freewill 

 consist of the three principal shoots, each bearing two young 

 shoots shortened to about 

 7 inches of their length ; 

 these last, in the succeed- 

 ing year's pruning, are to 

 be left with two shoots 

 only of new wood ; aU 

 other shoots are to be 

 closely cut out ; and, in 

 leaving the young shoots 

 for bearing, regard must 

 be had to keep the whole 

 in a regular and hand- 

 some form. 



In all following years 

 the system of pruning 

 and thinning is to keep 

 a moderate and constant 

 supply of strong healthy young shoots, from which alone 

 can be expected large and fine fruit ; and, whenever the ex- 

 tremities grow beyond the proper bounds, such branches- 

 should be cut back, so as to keep the tree in a compact form, 

 and furnished sufficiently, though rather thinly, with new 

 bearing wood : for large fruit cannot be expected if the tree is 

 too much crowded with old and young wood ; because the fruit 

 should have, as much as possible, a full share of the strength 

 of the tree. 



And it is not only to the branches and top of the tree that 

 the care of those who wish to excel in the cultivation of the 

 Gooseberry must be directed ; they must pay attention to tho 

 roots also, as it is necessary they should be pruned every two 

 or three years. When a root, therefore, has extended too 

 far from the stem, let it be uncovered, and all the strongest 

 leaders shortened back nearly one-half their length, and 

 covered-in with fresh marly loam. This will cause new and 

 more active roots to be formed nearer the stem, and give the 

 whole tree new vigour. A Gooseberry garden should be a 

 deep, rich, marly loam, moderately moist, and at the bottom 

 of a sheltering hiU. 



EAST LONDON AMATEUR FLORICULTUEAL 



SOCIETY. 



This Society, which has been established some eight years, is 

 composed chiefly of residents in the populous districts of Bromley 

 and Bow, and who are mostly men who are engaged in business 

 pursuits in the immediate neighbourhood. The plants are all 

 grown and flowered amidst the smoke of numerous factories 

 and close to the dust and dirt of crowded thoroughfares, and the 

 way in which these amateur gardeners (who find time after their 

 hard day's toil to attend to the varied wants of their own plants) 

 staged their specimens was worthy of high commendation. 

 They generally hold the spring Exhibition about the third week 



