GOOSEBERRIES AND CURRANTS. 353 



Cultivation of Gooseberries and Currants. 



Gooseberries and Currants, when planted in the open 

 quarters of a garden, require similar treatment ; therefore 

 such directions as are given for one may be strictly applied 

 to the other, with but a very trifling deviation. 



In the quarters where the young bushes have established 

 themselves, and made some vigorous shoots, the best placed 

 of those should be selected to form the head : four shoots 

 will be sufficient to begin with; these should be pruned 

 back to six or nine inches, according to their strength and 

 line of direction, from each of which three or four may be 

 expected for another year. When these are pruned at the 

 end of the second year, two of the best placed shoots from 

 each must be selected, and pruned back to six or nine inches 

 as before, cutting the others out close to the mother branch, 

 thereby preventing the production of an unnecessary and 

 useless number of shoots. 



In the third winter, according to this method, each young 

 bush v/ill have eight shoots when pruned, which will be suf- 

 ficient to form the principal limbs of the full grown head. 



In the fourth winter's pruning, the strongest and best 

 placed shoot only should be retained from each branch, and 

 that one pointing the most directly outwards, shortening it 

 to six or nine inches as before, and cutting off close all the 

 rest : this will give much more room to the branches, and 

 produce a more open and handsome head, than if two shoots 

 had been retained to each branch as before. 



In the fifth pruning, should the head require a greater sup- 

 ' ply of branches, two shoots may be left, in the same man- 

 ner as in the second and third year ; and this practice may 

 be continued, leaving either one or two shoots to each 

 branch, as occasion may require, so long as the bush stands. 

 It must, however, be observed, that the older the bushes 

 are, the smaller will be their leading shoots : these, of 

 course, must be shortened in proportion accordingly ; so 

 that a bush of fifteen or twenty years' standing will rarely 

 require its extreme shoot to be left more than six inches in 

 length. 



Currants, when planted as open bushes, require a man- 

 agement but Uttle differing from that of the gooseberry : 

 this consists, chiefly, in leaving their shoots at a greater 

 length in the annual prunings. In the dessert, the largest 



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