THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



67 



GOOSEBERRY IMPROVEMENT. 



Sir, — A good article by B. Gott, of 

 Arkona, in Rural Canadian moves me 

 to send to the organ of our fruit 

 growers a paper on the same subject. 



The article alluded to deals with the 

 improved American gooseberries, and 

 siiys that no good results have followed 

 crossing with the English sorts. 



Deep rich clay loam and much 

 trouble and care are needed in order to 

 secure reasonably long life. 



I think, however, that our few and 

 middling garden kinds must have re- 

 sulted from crossing the native with 

 the English, but that the mother 

 selected was one of our swamp berries, 

 of low, weak, spreading habit ; fruit 

 smooth yet deficient in flavor, size, and 

 sweetness, whereas had the other wild 

 type been chosen for crossing or im- 

 provement we might not now have 

 had to complain that of all our fruits 

 the gooseberry is the poorest. 



The taller sort of wild gooseberry is 

 very frequently prickly • or even spiny, 

 but is sometimes almost or quite 

 smooth, and the flavor very fine. 



Last summer I found a bush bear- 

 ing smooth good sized fruit, sweeter 

 imd richer than any English kind I 

 have met with, save one or two. 



Were our best tall -growing upland 



itives crossed with suitable European 



>rts we might expect what has not 



ret been attained, plants adapted to 



mr climate, fit for any soil, permanent, 



3eding little care or training, averse 



mildew, and bearing large crops of 



jh-flavored, good-sized fruit. 



From your remarks in Horticulturist 



am pleased to know that Mr. Demp- 

 jy, Mr. Saunders, and others are 



)ving in this direction, and that a 

 >w years may bring about a great re- 

 )rm in the fruit. 



Our generally rough natives are so 



:cellent for preserves that long ago in 



the United States the fruit was named 

 the " Jam Berry," and if for no other 

 reason deserves to be saved from the 

 extinction which in case of so many 

 wild plants follows the clearing ofi" of 

 our woods. 



As an instance of the permanence 

 and reliability of our upright growing 

 natives, I may state that when the 

 country was new, after trying many 

 English kinds and throwing them 

 away, I got into the practice continued 

 fitfully till the present time, of mark- 

 ing the better specimens in harvest 

 and lifting them in the fall, by which 

 means I obtained in a couple of seasons 

 a large plot of bushes four feet apart. 



Without any care most have borne 

 fruit for more than 25 years, and some 

 plants are 6 to 8 feet high, so that one 

 can place a chair under and sit to 

 pluck or eat the fruit. 



The native gooseberries are not 

 absolutely free from mildew, though it 

 is the exception, and not the rule as is 

 the case with the English sorts in 

 most situations. 



Cuttings strike with much dijficulty, 

 but layers take readily and soon make 

 fine roots ; transplanting in the fall 

 never fails. They are continued by a 

 natural system of renewal. Almost 

 every year tall straight twigs grow 

 from the crown of the root, and in the 

 next season these form side branches, 

 which next year and for several years 

 bear fruit. Pruning merely consists 

 in reducing the number of these young 

 stems, and in removing old ones occa- 

 sionally. 



The varieties are innumerable, as 

 each district has its peculiar sorts : — 

 Small, large, rough, smooth, sour, 

 sweet, green, red, in various shades, 

 rusty, purple, almost black, shining or 

 with a bloom. 



While doing well under cultivation, 

 there is little or no improvement in 

 size or quality of fruit thereby, and 



