GOOSEBERRY 



GOOSEBERRY 



1359 



the surface, tillage should be shallow. Mulching with 

 straw is sometimes advisable to keep the soil cool. 



As the gooseberry makes much more wood than it is 

 desirable to leave, severe pruning is necessary. English 

 varieties are usually trained to a single stem, but this is 

 not necessary, although the freer circulation of air when 

 trained in this way may help to prevent the spread of 

 mildew. The usual custom in America is to grow the 

 gooseberry in bush form. The bush should at first be 



York. He gives the probable range from 300 to 500 

 bushels an acre. Bailey gives the average as 100 

 bushels an acre. 



European gooseberries. 



In Great Britain the gooseberry is one of the most 

 popular fruits, and great quantities of the product are 

 grown there every year. They are used to a large 

 extent for eating out of hand when ripe, but are much 



1667. An American gooseberry, Ribes hirtellum. 



brought into a good shape by leaving a few of the 

 strongest shoots regularly distributed to make an 

 open head. Five or six of these shoots are quite suffi- 

 cient to leave at first. As the bush gets older, new shoots 

 are allowed to grow to take the place of the older ones, 

 as the pruning should be done with a view to having 

 only vigorous bearing wood. Fruit is borne on year-old 

 wood and from spurs on older wood. It usually is not 

 desirable to have any wood more than three years old. 

 The best time to prune is in the autumn or winter. The 

 weakest young shoots should be cut off at the ground, 

 also all the stronger young shoots not required for 

 fruiting or to take the place of the older branches to be 

 cut away. The side shoots from the older branches 

 should be headed back or cut out altogether so as to 

 maintain a fairly open head, making it as easy as pos- 

 sible to pick the fruit and yet leaving sufficient wood 

 to produce a good crop and shade the fruit from the sun, 

 as in a hot dry time gooseberries are liable to be injured 

 by scalding. When branches are more than three years 

 of age they should be removed to make way for 

 younger wood. It is advisable to cut out all branches 

 which touch the ground as there will then be a better 

 circulation of air, and the fruit will be kept off the 

 ground. Gooseberries will often begin to bear the second 

 year after planting, but there will not be a full crop 

 until the fourth season. If the soil is kept in good condi- 

 tion by an annual application of well-rotted barnyard 

 manure in the autumn, harrowed in the following spring, 

 and if the bushes are kept sprayed and well pruned, 

 the plantation will not need to be renewed for many 

 years. Sometimes a plant is trained to a single stem 

 (Fig. 1669), to secure extra fine fruit, but it is only a 

 home-garden practice and scarcely to be recommended 



Yield of gooseberries. 



The American gooseberry is a productive fruit and 

 averages a good crop if well cared for. It is, however, 

 very important to have good foliage to protect the fruit 

 from the sun, and unfortunately many let the currant 

 worm destroy a large proportion of the foliage, and if 

 the weather is hot the fruit suffers. Six bushes of the 

 Pearl have averaged at the Central Experimental Farm, 

 Ottawa, Canada, in five years at the rate of 12,402 

 pounds an acre each year, or, at forty pounds to the 

 bushel, over 310 bushels an acre. The highest yield was 

 in 1905, when five bushes of Pearl 6x4 feet apart 

 yielded seventy-five pounds, or at the rate of 27,225 

 pounds an acre, equal to over 680 bushels. 



The highest yield mentioned by Card in his work on 

 "Bush Fruits," is at the rate of 450 bushels an acre, 

 obtained at the Geneva Experiment Station, New 



in demand for making jam. Owing to their large size 

 and good flavor, and their popularity in Great Britain, 

 they were early imported into America, but it was soon 

 found that owing to the gooseberry mildew the Euro- 

 pean varieties could not be successfully cultivated in 

 most places in which the gooseberry grows. Where the 

 climate approaches nearest to that of Great Britain, 

 and the northern and moister parts of Europe, and there 

 is considerable moisture in the air, not very high sum- 

 mer temperatures, and considerable cloudy weather, 

 the European gooseberry succeeds best. Even in gar- 

 dens in which there is a great deal of vegetation giving 

 off much moisture, and in which the soil is shaded and 

 cool, good success is often obtained and almost or quite 

 as fine gooseberries produced as in England, but such 

 instances are the exception. 



Heavy clay soils are most suited to the gooseberry 

 and there is little use trying to grow the European 

 varieties IB light soils. Clay soils are cool, and with 



1668. Downing gooseberry. 



them it is easier to secure the conditions necessary to 

 success. Various methods are recommended for grow- 

 ing European gooseberries free from mildew. Mulch- 

 ing the soil heavily with straw is one. Mulching the 

 soil with coal-ashes is another. Shading the soil with 

 laths set on a frame 8 to 10 feet high is another. All 

 these methods are useful, but unless the air is moist 

 above as it is cool and moist below, the conditions will 

 be still more or less favorable for the development of 

 the disease. The conditions of a thickly planted garden, 

 where there is partial shade, seem the most favorable. 



Varieties of gooseberries. 



American: Pearl, Downing (Fig. 1668), Josselyn 

 (Red Jacket). Hough ton is the hardiest. 



