58 ORCHARD FRUIT TREE CULTURE 



Gooseberries or red and white currants do not require a heavy 

 soil and are not over particular in its character provided it is well 

 drained, thoroughly cultivated and manured. A warm, deep, 

 fairly light soil, such as in many old gardens has been cultivated 

 and nursed for generations, will produce magnificent berries and 

 plenty of them if there is sufficient nourishment. Black currants 

 will do very well on the same soil, but on the whole they prefer a 

 heavier and richer soil not deficient in silica. Having regard to the 

 size to which healthy gooseberries and currants will attain, we 

 consider that from row to row and from plant to plant the distance 

 should not be less than 6 feet. Let this planting be done as early as 

 possible after mid-October, for the same purpose of making 

 autumn roots as already referred to, and again in March follow the 

 same method of hard pruning to increase the size of the bushes. 



We have now the bushes complete and in their permanent quar- 

 ters, but we feel we ought not to leave them without some reference 

 to their after treatment, and more particularly the pruning. As to 

 gooseberries, though we have seen these pruned hard and crowded 

 with fruit spurs, that is not the custom when large numbers have 

 to be handled. With most market men it resolves itself into an 

 annual trimming away of immature wood and a drastic thinning 

 out of what is crowded or superfluous. The heart of the bush is 

 kept as open as is possible ; weak wood is discarded and only the 

 young, the strong and the robust retained. The outer shoots are 

 shortened back to the first outward eye on the ripened wood, and 

 only the unripe ends removed. Those who have a fancy for cordon 

 gooseberries (these are not market growers) follow out the method 

 of pinching and spur-making as spoken of previously, and trees so 

 grown are very interesting if not always profitable. 



Red and white currants are pruned back hard every season to 

 within a few eyes of the base, for these produce fruit on specially 

 developed wood and spurs. It weakens and eventually spoils a 

 tree if this is not done, as the sample of fruit produced would not 

 be looked at by any self-respecting buyer not even the jam makers. 

 To produce luscious clusters of good fat berries the hard pruning 

 of the current season's wood every autumn must be effected. 



Black currants are different. As these produce their berries on 

 the previous year's growths, it is obvious that you cannot prune 



