MANAGEMENT OF GOOSEBERRY SLIPS. 135 



plantation on other ground, keeping the old for a 

 few years, till the young have come into plentiful 

 bearing. It is not necessary to be troubled with 

 a tally of the slip which you raise: let them be 

 selected of the best sorts, and of sufficient variety. 

 The slips must be of the last year's growth, cut to 

 the length of nine inches, and having every bud 

 carefully cut off with the knife, except three or four 

 next to the top or upper extremity of the slip ; for 

 it is better to have the natural top of the slip cut 

 off by a few inches, as the buds are there weaker 

 and too frequent. If care be not taken to extract 

 the buds from that part of the slip which is inserted 

 in the ground they will become suckers, which can- 

 not afterwards be easily got rid of. Let the slips 

 so prepared be set in rich border ground, to a depth 

 equal to half their length, and in rows one foot apart. 

 The sooner that this is done after the fall of the leaf 

 the better : the ground should be kept clean and 

 stirred up between the rows: and in the course of 

 two years you may thus have an abundant supply 

 for a new gooseberry plantation. 



If the ground on which they are to be set require 

 trenching, it should undergo that operation a year 

 or two before, in order that the new soil which is 

 turned up may be enriched and incorporated with 

 the old : and well is it worth while to be at so much 

 pains, as the making of such a plantation, if rightly 

 done, will only once be required in a lifetime. The 

 young plants may either be placed at their proper 

 distances of four or five feet in all directions, 



