308 



THE GOOSEBERRY. 



/(/ 



worthless. Hence it is that young plants usually bear ex- 

 cellent crops for the first or second year, while after that the 

 mildew is in some varieties and situations 

 unconquerable. 



The bush should have a stem of three or 

 four inches in hight, and a head composed 

 of five or six main branches placed at equal 

 distances and inclined outwards, to prevent 

 denseness and confusion in the center. These 

 main branches should be furnished with 

 bearing wood in all their length. The pro- 

 duction of such a bush may be accomplished 

 by the following means : 



Supposing the young plant as it comes 

 from the nursery to be either a two-year-ofd 

 cutting, or a one-year bedded layer ; in 

 either case it will have a stem of two or 

 three inches at least, and a few branches at 

 the top. Before planting, all the buds on 

 the part of the stem to be below the ground 

 are cut out, to prevent them from producing 

 suckers. Among the branches, three of those 

 most favorably situated, are selected for the 

 Branch of the f rma tion of the head, and the others are 

 gooseberry. A, cut out entirely. The reserved branches are 



two . year - old ^ t j k t t tn b d f 



wood ; B, one 



year; (7, c, fruit- these one shoot is taken on each branch, and 

 buds; />, Awood- the others are pinched to favor this. By this 



buds; d, a small *_ J 



wood-bud at the method we shall nave three stout shoots in 

 base of fruit - t he fall. If the plant had been well rooted, 

 instead of being newly transplanted, we 

 might have taken two shoots instead of one from each 

 shortened branch. These three branches are cut back at 

 the next pruning to three or four buds, and from each 

 two new shoots are taken, giving at the end of that sea- 

 son six stout young shoots, situated at equal distances. 



Fig. 151. 



