THE OPENING YEAR 



best fruit is borne on the young wood — that is, the 



Jan. 

 I 15 



Fig. 15.— Pruning Black Currant. 



a. Old branches to be cut off. 



b. Young ones to be kept. 



c. A separate young branch ; the kind to retain. 



fruit of one year is borne on the wood made the previous 

 year. 



Pruning Gooseberries. — Although January is a good 

 month for pruning Gooseberries so far as the bushes 

 are concerned, birds have to be considered. The more 

 a Gooseberry bush is pruned, the easier it is for the 

 birds to get access to the buds on the shoots left, and 

 birds love to get into the bushes and pick the buds 

 out. The earlier the pruning is done, the more time 

 the birds have to strip the shoots. Growers find it 

 wise to limewash their Gooseberries in winter, run 

 threads about the bushes from branch to branch, and 

 defer the pruning till the buds begin to swell. 

 35 



