564 



THE GOOSEBERRY. 



Fig. 373. Hooked 

 ttick for training prize 

 gooseberry bushes ; length 

 two feet. 



These are applied 



Fig. 374. Forked 

 stick for training prize 

 gooseberry bushes; length 

 two feet. 



moderately moist, at the bottom of such a slope as shall at once produce 



shelter from the highest winds of 



the locality, and ensure a certain 



degree of coolness, and supply of 



moisture, from what may be termed 



the insensible escape of the rain 



which has sunk into the soil in 



the upper part of the declivity. 



Being planted, the next step is 



to prepare for pruning and train- 



ing, by procuring a few hooked 



sticks, (fig. 373) and forked sticks 



(fig. 374); the former to hold 



down the branches that are in- 



clined to grow upwards, and 



the latter to support those which 



are inclined to grow downwards. 



to the plant in the manner shown in fig. 375, in 

 which, also, the roots appear regularly 

 spread out in every direction. In the 

 autumn of the second year these three 

 shoots will have produced a number of 

 side-shoots, most of which may be 

 shortened to one eye, and the others 

 reduced to one-half of their length. 

 No shoots should be left either at the 

 origin or the extremities of the branches, 

 but only at the sides ; the fewer the 

 number of shoots, and the younger the 

 tree, the larger will be the fruit. Thus 

 t h e plant, when pruned in the Novem- 



, , .,, . 



ber of the second year, will consist of 

 three principal shoots, each bearing two young shoots, shortened to about 

 seven inches of their length. These last, in the pruning of the third year, 

 are to be left with two shoots only of new wood ; these shoots being placed 

 in such a manner as to preserve the symmetry of the plant, without crowd- 

 ing it in any part. The same system of pruning and thinning is continued 

 in future years cutting out the old wood occasionally, so as to preserve a 

 moderate and constant supply of strong, healthy young shoots, from which 

 alone large and fine fruit can be expected. Whenever the extremities of 

 the branches grow more than from twenty inches to two feet from the main 

 stem, they must be cut back ; for large fruit will never be produced at the 

 extremities of long branches. The roots of the plants must also be attended 

 to, by cutting a trench round the plant at the distance to which the branches 

 are limited, so as to shorten all the main roots to that length, smoothing 

 their extremities with the knife, and filling up the trench with fresh marly 

 loam, enriched with cow- dung. Some growers even carry the system of 

 root-pruning so far as to lay bare the whole of the roots, and thin out and 

 shorten the larger ones in the same manner as is done with the branches, 

 re-covering the roots with fresh soil. The fruit after being set is 

 thinned out, as well as the branches, and not more than one or two berries 



Fig. 375. A trained prize Gooseberry-bush, 



two years growth from the cutting. 



