266 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 







might probably be attained by throwing the lime 

 mixed with earth over the surface, and ploughing or 

 harrowing it under previous to planting.* 



There are in my garden some young gooseberry- 

 bushes which have been well manured and pruned, 

 but the fruit, since they commenced bearing (about 

 three years ago), has been uniformly rusty, as it is 

 commonly termed. To prevent this, I have tried 

 several remedies without success. Last year, see- 

 ing salt dissolved in water somewhere recommend- 

 ed, I had it sprinkled over the bushes several times, 

 commencing when they were in blossom, but with- 

 out any effect. I have also tried lime (recommend- 

 ed, I believe, in the Cultivator). Last fall it was 

 applied freely about the roots, and the branches 

 whitewashed as thoroughly as practicable, and a 

 small quantity mixed with water was sprinkled over 

 the bushes two or three times this spring. E. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING. 



We apprehend that the common practices in this 

 branch of rural labour are not altogether based upon 

 a sound philosophy. The animal structure, we all 

 know, is admirably adapted to its wants, its habits, 

 and its uses. There is no surplusage ; no useless 

 encumbrance ; all is necessary to fulfil the designs 

 of nature. From analogy, then, and from the sys- 



* Remark. We have cultivated the gooseberry eighteen years, 

 during sixteen of which we lost most or all of the crop by mil- 

 dew or rust ; but the last two years the fruit has been fine, 

 clean, and healthy. We impute the recent exemption from 

 these diseases to the application of brine (salt and water) to the 

 ground about the bushes in the month of February the two pre- 

 ceding years. We consider the mildew a vegetable parasite, 

 which abides permanently upon the collar and root of the bush, 

 and irom which see>ls are disseminated, under a suitable state 

 ol the atmosphere in summer, to the fruit; and that the appli- 

 cation of salt, when vegetation is dormant, destroys the par.tsite 

 without hurling the bush. Pickle may be used in the growing 

 eason at the rate of one ounce of salt to one gallon of water 

 In winter it may be made much stronger. Cond. 



