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summer. Cuttings of young growing 

 shoots, also, strike readily under a 



Layering is performed as with other 

 deciduous shrubs ; if in the old wood, 

 at the same period as the cuttings, and 

 for the same reasons ; if in the young 

 shoots, when they have acquired some 

 strength, about the beginning of July. 



Seed. This is the source whence 

 new varieties may be obtained. The 

 seed being washed out of the pulp 

 when ripe, may be sown immediately ; 

 and in the ensuing spring, if the plants 

 can be early subjected to a slight bot- 

 tom warmth, they will be a foot in 

 height in the first summer, and may, 

 with good management, be brought to 

 bear, some in the second year, and all 

 in the third. 



Soil. A deep sandy loam is best 

 adapted to the gooseberry. Any free 

 garden soil, of average quality, will pro- 

 duce them in tolerable perfection, if 

 well manured, and, above all things, 

 freed from excess of moisture. Goose- 

 berries will never thrive in stagnant 

 soil; they will become hide-bound 

 speedily, and their stems covered with 

 moss. Nevertheless, they are very par- 

 tial to a permanency of surface mois 

 ture in the growing season, and for 

 that purpose top-dressings are had re- 

 course to. Wherever fine gooseberries 

 are required, the situation must be 

 totally unshaded ; it, however, becomes 

 good policy at times to plant some un- 

 der the partial shade of small trees; 

 in such situations they will set in a 

 frosty spring, when those exposed are 

 cut off. 



Culture in Growing Period. A due 

 training, especially whilst young, is 

 necessary. Those who grow them for 

 exhibition use two sorts of sticks, vix., 

 forks and hooks, these are cut out of 

 any ordinary brush-wood, about half a 

 yard long, and they must be neatly 

 pointed. Thus the hooks are made to 

 draw down refractory shoots, and the 

 forks to prop up the drooping ones. 

 It is good practice to apply a top 

 dressing of half rotten manure in the 

 beginning of May ; and just before the 

 fruithave completed their last swelling, 



the points of all the longest straggling 

 shoots may be pinched or dubbed. It 

 is well to go over the bushes in the 

 early part of June, and remove much 

 of the waste spray which chokes the 

 interior of the bush ; some of the 

 grosser shoots may be entirely re- 

 moved, and all others of a doubtful 

 character may have the points pinched. 

 This will throw both size and flavour 

 into the berry, and add to the value of 

 the remaining wood for the ensuing 

 crop. 



Culture in the Root Period. Prun- 

 ing is the first point, and the sooner 

 this is performed after the fall of the 

 leaf the better. It consists, mainly, in 

 thinning out; when a bush is well 

 thinned, no two shoots will touch ; in- 

 deed, they should be, on an average, 

 three inches apart all over the bush. 

 Most good cultivators keep the middle 

 of the bush very open ; this is espe- 

 cially necessary during the first three 

 years from striking the cutting ; and 

 the principle should be attended to, 

 less or more, at every annual pruning 

 afterwards. In selecting wood to re- 

 main, choose that which is strong, but 

 not over luxuriant; the latter, with all 

 weakly and inferior wood, may be cut 

 clear away; cutting away, also, all i-oarse 

 snags in the interior of the branches. 

 Lastly, shorten every point which ap- 

 pears weakly or incomplete in charac- 

 ter, just so far as such inferiority is 

 manifest. The root must now receive 

 attention ; some of our show goose- 

 berry growers open a trench around 

 their bushes annually, at about the 

 distance the branches extend ; cutting 

 away all coarse roots beyond that line. 

 They then fill in the trench with good 

 fresh loam and cow dung blended. 

 Whether this be done or not, a top 

 dressing of half-decayed manure should 

 be annually applied; scraping away 

 the loose surface, and placing the m:i 

 nure next the top fibres, and then 

 soiling the whole over. 



INSECTS. See Abraxas, Aphis, and 

 Nematm. 



GOBDO'NIA. ( Named after Mr. Gordon, 

 ii London nurseryman. Nat. ord., 

 The ads [Ternstromiaceee]. Linn., 1(>- 



