332 Report of the Horticulturist op the 



The remarkable wny in which seedlings vary from the parent gooseberry 

 is well illustrated by some seedlings of the Industry which have l)een 

 raised at this station. The Industi'y is an English variety with nearly 

 smooth red fruit. Twenty-nine of its seedlings were fruited here In 1893 

 and the different plants varied greatly in the color and smoothness of their 

 fruit as is shown by the following statement: Eight plants had dark-red 

 fruit, eight red, two light red, three pale green, four green shaded with 

 j'ellow, one yellow, two pale yellow, and one nearly white. Nine plants 

 had smooth ifruit, fourteen nearly smooth, five somewhat hairy and one 

 very hairy. The fruit of the different plants also showed great difference 

 in size, shape and quality. Figure 1, plate XXI is from a photograph of 

 twenty-seven of these Industry seedlings. The Industry appears in the 

 basket which is set forward near the center of the front line of the group. 

 The four baskets in the row at the extreme left contain the native vari- 

 eties, Pale Red, Downing, Pearl and Mountain (?) whi(;h were placed 

 there for comparison with the Industry seedlings. In one plant the color 

 of the calyx was pale green; in the others it varied from light to dark red. 

 Considerable variation was seen also in the habit of growth and in the 

 character of the foliage. While some of the seedlings showed a marked 

 resemblance to the parent, each was clearly distinct from it and prob- 

 ably none of them will equal it as a desirable kind for cultivation. Occa- 

 sionally a gooseberry seedling resembles the parent very closely, as is the 

 case with the Pearl, which can scarcely be distinguished from its parent 

 the Downing, either in foliage or in fruit, but such instances are excep- 

 tional. I 



When gooseberries are raised from seed tlie cliances are that 

 many of the plants thus secured will not be worth cultivating 

 and few or none of them may equal in value the best of the well 

 known cultivated sorts. For this reason the practice of growing 

 gooseberries from seed can be recommended only to persons 

 interested in the origination of new varieties, while those who 

 wish to grow gooseberries for home use or for market should 

 select for this purpose the best of the kinds which are already 

 known in cultivation. Gooseberries are readily grown from seed 

 by sowing the seed in boxes or beds as soon as the fruit is ripe. 

 The seedlings begin to fruit when three or four years old. As 

 previously stated, a gooseberry variety is propagated by taking 

 suckers, layers or cuttings from the old plants. 



Propagation from Suckers. — Sometimes gooseberries are propa- 

 gated in small quantities by separating rooted canes from old 

 plants, but this practice is not followed to any extent except in 

 gardens. The })lants thus secnrod will in turn throw up suckers 



