5$8 THE GOOSEBERRY. 



gonist, Wellington's Glory, Whitesmith, Queen Charlotte, Eagle, 

 Fleur-de-lis. 



The most valuable red gooseberry in cultivation is perhaps the red 

 Champagne, generally called the Ironmonger in Scotland, the fruit of 

 which is of superior flavour, is well adapted for all the purposes to 

 which gooseberries are applied, and by matting it may be preserved 

 on the bush till December. The fruit of the Pitmaston Green Gage 

 will hang on the branches till it shrivels and almost candies. The 

 red Warrington is an excellent gooseberry, either for table or wine- 

 making, but it is of pendulous growth, and part of the fruit is apt to 

 be rotted in wet seasons. There is a general prejudice against the 

 large Lancashire kinds, which, it is alleged, are deficient in flavour ; 

 but this is not the case with many of them, as we have long proved. 

 Their great size also gives them a special value as dessert fruit. 



Propagation, Nursery Culture, and Choice of Plants. The common 

 mode of propagation is by cuttings, which should be formed from 

 shoots taken from healthy vigorous plants in autumn, as long and 

 straight as they can be got. The point of the shoot should be shortened 

 two or three inches, to where the wood is firm, and the buds mature ; 

 and the cutting, which should, if possible, be twelve or fifteen inches 

 in length, should be planted in sandy loam, in a moist situation, 

 shaded from the direct influence of the sun, but not covered or 

 confined by the branches of large trees. Some of the Lancashire 

 growers tie a little moss round the lower part of the cutting, which is 

 said to cause it to strike stronger roots. In loamy moist soil they need 

 not be planted above three inches deep, but in ordinary garden soil 

 six inches will be safer ; in either case the cutting must be made quite 

 firm at its lower extremity. Where there is only one plant of a rare 

 kind, the most certain and rapid mode of propagation is by laying 

 down the branches along the surface of the ground, as practised by 

 the stock-growers in propagating plum and Paradise stocks. Suckers 

 are occasionally resorted to, but as they generally contain a greater 

 number of adventitious buds at the lower extremities than shoots from 

 the branches, they are apt to throw up a redundancy of suckers. 

 Gooseberries seldom remain longer in the nursery than two years, 

 being transplanted into rows two feet by one foot the autumn of the 

 same season in which they are struck. No other pruning is requisite 

 than removing suckers or shoots from the stem, so as to leave three, 

 or at most four, divergent shoots to form the head. 



Soil, Situation, and Final Planting. The best soil is a cool marly 

 loam, rich, deep, well-manured, and kept moderately moist, either 

 by the situation and subsoil, or by the surface being covered by the 

 branches of the bushes, so as greatly to lessen evaporation. The 

 situation should be open, and by no means shaded with standard fruit 

 trees, the gooseberries grown under which are almost always bitter. 

 In general gooseberries and all fruit shrubs should be cultivated in 

 plantations by themselves ; but in small gardens they may be placed 

 in rows along the borders, either as dwarfs or espaliers or pyramids, 

 in which form they bear well, and are highly ornamental. 



