GOOSEBERRIES AND CURRANTS. 147 



growth, poor inferior sprays, and all coarse snags in 

 the interior, may be clean cut away. Finish up by 

 shortening the points which are weakly, removing only 

 the bad and spindly tips. When two or three years 

 old spurs become too numerous they may be thinned 

 out, leaving only young ones, which will give the fruit 

 more room to swell. 



Every year dig a trench round the bush as far from 

 the stem as the branches spread ; cut away the roots 

 beyond, and fill it in with a compost of good loam and 

 cow manure. 



For summer culture give a top-dressing of half-rotten 

 manure early in May. Towards the end of the time 

 when the fruit is swelling, the points of long straggling 

 shoots may be pinched off. 



In June, much of the waste spray which chokes the 

 centre of the bush may be removed : the grossest shoots 

 may be cut out entirely, and those about which there is 

 a doubt, pinched back. This will improve the fruit as 

 well as the wood for future produce. 



In the early training of young gooseberry trees, 

 forked sticks of two kinds will be found very useful. 

 Sticks cut from brushwood, half a yard long or so, and 

 pointed at the end. Some must have the fork pointing 

 downwards : these are to peg down the branches which 

 want to grow too erect, and to draw them out so as to 

 leave the centre of the bush open. Others must have 

 the fork pointing upwards, and are to be used to support 

 the branches which droop too close to the ground. 



Prize gooseberries are grown on young bushes, which 

 are kept to five or six branches each. Only two or three 

 gooseberries are allowed to grow on each branch, and 

 sometimes only one, and in hot weather the bushes are 

 watered, and shaded from the sun during the hottest 

 part of the day. 



The winter pruning of currants must likewise be 

 done as soon as the leaves are down. The side-shoots 

 from among the spurs on the healthy, bearing branches, 

 which have (or should have) been stopped in June, 

 must be cut back to within an inch of the main stem, 



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