THE GOOSEBEKKY AND CUBRANT. 147 



to some continental ones, for a writer in 1750 says, " they 

 are nowhere so good as in Holland ;" when, about the end 

 of last or the beginning of this century, the plant was 

 adopted as the special favourite of a class of men who 

 devoted to its culture all the enthusiasm for which their 

 ordinary occupation afforded no scope, and under the 

 amateur care of Lancashire weavers the despised berry, 

 which had been left to rustics and children, was fitted to 

 take its place at the most aristocratic tables, and earned 

 the character it now bears, as being " one of our most 

 valuable table and culinary fruits." Its intrinsic excel- 

 lence is, doubtless, enhanced by the fact of its being the 

 first to greet us in spring, as well as one of the last to 

 leave us in autumn ; for the green gooseberry is in season 

 from the beginning of May till the middle of July, when 

 the ripe one succeeds it, and lasts till the end of August, 

 and some kinds will even, when kept shaded, prolong the 

 supply till November, or, in a dry season, till Christmas. 

 Of the various hues assumed by this grape of the North, 

 the amber colour is, according to Bhind, accompanied by 

 the richest vinous flavour, as is the case with the more 

 legitimate, or at least older offspring of Bacchus; the 

 green is specially noted for sweetness, as is also the green- 

 gage among plums ; the white are most insipid ; and in 

 the red, acidity is more predominant than in any of the 

 others a fact in accordance with the property possessed 

 by acids of changing vegetable blues to red. Though only 

 a bush by nature, the gooseberry sometimes attains al- 

 most arboreal dimensions, for one at Duffield, known to 

 be at least 46 years old, measured 12 yards in circumfe- 

 rence, and two plants trained against a wall in the garden 

 of Sir Joseph Banks, in Chesterfield, each extended up- 

 wards of 50 feet from one extremity to the other, and 

 afforded several pecks of fruit annually. 



It is to the attainment of the utmost possible corpu- 

 lence in a few chosen berries that everything else is 

 sacrificed by a Lancashire gooseberry grower. Every 

 shoot not absolutely necessary is pruned away ; every 

 fruit removed but the three or four carefully selected as 

 the most promising; and besides "suckling" the plant 



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