GOOSEBERRIES PROTECTING AND THINNING. 



217 



with great celerity by the " Garden Webber" ("Stott" Company, Manchester), Fig. 66. 

 The cotton unwinds as fast as the stick can be passed over the bushes ten or twenty 

 times as quickly as by passing the cotton through the fingers. 



Protecting the Blossom. Though the gooseberry is perfectly hardy and passes the 

 severest winter unscathed, the flowers, also the young fruits, are very sensitive to frost. 

 The best-spurred branches, as a rule, suffer the least damage from sudden changes, and 

 the pendulous-growing varieties often escape when the erect-growing kinds suffer severely. 

 A single thickness of tiffany stretched along the top of cordon trees usually saves the 

 crop, and similar means may be employed over bushes, or old newspapers placed on 



Pig. 66. ROYIB'S GABDEN WEBBER. 



them at night, and not removed until the frost has gone, afford effectual shelter, and 

 are kept in place with string attached to the corners. 



Thinning the Fruit. Young green gooseberries are appreciated in every household for 

 pies and puddings, and thinning them persistently for use relieves the trees. In some 

 cases the latter are allowed to carry all the fruit to maturity for preserving or dessert 

 purposes. This in a heavy crop so exhausts the bushes that the produce is scanty in the 

 succeeding year. The spurs cleared of berries have the assimilated matter centred on 

 the buds instead of the seeds in the fruit forming embryonic berries for development 

 in the succeeding year. It is best to gather the whole of the fruit in a green state from 

 the lowest branches, as it may be covered with soil particles splashed up by the rain. 



Protecting the Fruit. Nets are absolutely essential to preserve ripe fruit from birds, 

 and that for hanging must be enwrapped in wasp and bluebottle fly-proof material. 

 Hexagon netting answers perfectly for bushes and wall trees, whilst muslin bags 

 answer for the finest specimens. J^'ruit for keeping ought to be thin, for decay 



VOL. n. F F 



