288 



Horse Market in Dumfries. 



Vol. XI. 



HoAV to Raise the best Gooseberries. 



Sir — I hear almost every body complain 

 of the difficulty of raising fine gooseberries. 

 The bushes, to be sure, grow easily enough. 

 It is not difficult to get from the nurseries 

 the prime English sorts — sorts with large 

 and high flavoured fruit, really worth grow- 

 ing. But there seems to be something wrong 

 in our warm and dry climate, that is utter 

 ruin to the fruit. A sort o? scurf or mildew 

 settles on the berries as soon as they are 

 about a quarter grown, and destroys the 

 whole crop. Once attacked by this pest, the 

 berries are past cure, and quite worthless. 



Now I have been very lucky in my goose- 

 berry growing, and it has struck me that a 

 few words about my way of doing the thing 

 might help some unfortunate being, fond of 

 gooseberries, but who does not know how to 

 raise them. 



I plant my gooseberry trees in a long bor- 

 der on the north side of a paling fence. Be- 

 fore planting them, I trench the border two 

 feet deep, as I know that the roots of the 

 gooseberry love plenty of moisture all sum- 

 mer, which they can never get in the soil, 

 unless it is made deeper than common, by 

 trenching it well. For manure, I give it a 

 heavy dressing of common stable manure, 

 when the trenching is going forward. 



I then put opt my gooseberry plants early 

 in the spring, or early in the fall, as may be 

 most convenient to me. I have not found 

 that the season makes much difference. I 

 plant them about four feet apart every way, 

 and always keep them trimmed to clean 

 single stems like small trees. 



There are hundreds of sorts of " prize 

 gooseberries" raised in Lancashire, but they 

 are not all suited to this climate. I have 

 tried a great many, and have settled down 

 upon Iwo, which, taking all in all, I think 

 not surpassed by any others for this climate. 

 These are the Crown Bob, a grand old red 

 gooseberry of excellent size, always bears 

 good crops and possesses a high flavour; and 

 the White Smith, quite as good among the 

 whites, as Crown Bob is among the reds. 

 There are no doubt many others, very good 

 ones, in the catalogues, but there are none 

 better, and as there is not much variety in 

 gooseberry flavour, I am quite content with 

 these two prime sorts, that will satisfy any 

 body, however fastidious. 



I prune my gooseberries among the very 

 first bits of garden work done in the opening 

 of spring. I usually cut out about one-third 

 of the wood made the previous summer. As 

 soon after that as the ground is in working 

 order, I give the border where they grow the 

 dressing for the season, afler this fashion. I 

 first provide myself with a couple of barrels 



of soot, as this is my fovourite manure for 

 this shrub. It is easily enough collected 

 during the winter, with the help of a chim- 

 ney-sweeper in my neighbourhood, and I 

 suppose every housekeeper might save 

 enough for the gooseberries in his own gar- 

 den, if he is not so large a gooseberry grower 

 as myself, out of the sweepings of the chim- 

 neys and stove pipes about his own premises. 



The gooseberry border is first nicely dug 

 over. I then scatter a light dressing of the 

 soot over the whole surface, and under the 

 bushes, at the rate of a quart to each goose- 

 berry bush. This gives them plenty of sti- 

 mulus for the season's growth, for soot is a 

 very powerful manure, and no plant likes 

 richer soil than the gooseberry. 



Next comes my remedy against the mil- 

 dew. This is neither more nor less than 

 salt hay (i. e. hay from the salt marshes.)* 

 As soon as I have made the top dressing of 

 soot, I cover the whole surface of my goose- 

 berry border with salt hay to the depth of 

 throe inches. This keeps the soil always 

 moist and cool, not merely by covering the 

 ground with the hay so that it shall not be 

 made dry by the sun, but because the salt in 

 the hay always attracts moisture from the 

 air, and gives it out to the bushes. This pre- 

 vents the sudden changes from hot to dry, 

 which always almost immediately cause mil- 

 dew. I have tried it now six years, and 

 have never had a blighted berry from the first, 

 though in the same soil, and with these very 

 sorts, I had bother enough with this trouble- 

 some thing before. 



My crops are regular and large. They 

 may not equal the prize sorts of the Lanca- 

 shire weavers, who put a saucer of water 

 under their show berries to make great drop- 

 sical monsters of them, but I will answer for 

 it, they are higher flavoured. — Doivning^s 

 Horticulturist. 



Horse Blarket in Dumfries. 



The number of animals offered on Tues- 

 day was below an average; but the quality 

 in general was good ; the greater part being 

 in the hands of dealers, who for some time 

 past, have been through the surrounding dis- 

 tricts, picking up whatever they could find, 

 whether to supply our railways, or an impres- 

 sion that our rural labour is rather behind. 

 The demand was remarkably brisk, and sales 

 were easily made at prices perhaps higher 

 than were ever before obtained in our mar- 

 ket; good draught colts from 4 to 6 years 

 old, may be quoted generally from about j£45 



* We suppose in districts of country where salt hay 

 is not produced, a substitute might be found in any 

 coarse common hay soaked in brine. 



