GOOSEBERRY CATERPILLAR. 129 



at one guinea per pound, as easy to be had as the 

 potato or the gooseberry no family would ever be 

 done with the physician. The gooseberry is pro- 

 duced in almost endless varieties; and as all of them 

 are good it is unnecessary to notice the different 

 sorts or the qualities of each. The main thing is 

 to avoid those neglects in the culture of this fruit, 

 or to overcome those enemies, by which the tree is 

 rendered unproductive. Unpruned, it grows after 

 the manner of a bush of rushes, and is wholly fruit- 

 less; and by the attacks of caterpillars it is often 

 seen without a leaf, in which case the fruit, though 

 abundant, is utterly useless. If you have old bushes 

 of the rushy form; you cannot have them too soon 

 removed from the ground, as they are quite incur- 

 able ; but if they stand on one stem, and are en- 

 cumbered with old wood, lay the saw to the heart 

 and clear out the large branches, bringing the tree 

 to the figure of a cup; and then with a pruning 

 knife take off so many of the young shoots as to 

 leave those that remain a handbreadth apart. 



Towards the end of May the caterpillar makes 

 its appearance, and in a very short period completes 

 the work of destruction; but if it be observed in 

 time, a boy, hired at sixpence a-day, will in two or 

 three days, by creeping under the bushes and 

 gathering the caterpillars from the leaves, save the 

 whole of your crop. If you desire him to put a 

 notch in a small stick with his knife for every hun- 

 dred he kills, you give him an incredible stimulus 

 to perseverance. His sole aim is to add another 



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