THE CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY. 279 



270. Pruning and Training. Like the red currant, the 

 gooseberry bears the best fruit on two-year-old wood. 

 Hence the main pruning consists in removing canes older 

 than three years. Grown in the ordinary bush form, little 

 pruning is needed the first two or three years after plant- 

 ing. If on rich soil and good culture is given, some clip- 

 ping back in early spring of the strongest shoots is bene- 

 ficial, as it favors the development of fruit-spurs below. 

 If not clipped back during the first year, the canes will 

 get long and the fruiting-spurs will be at the top on canes 

 so long that the fruit will bend it to the ground. With the 

 American varieties no attempt should be made to keep an 

 open top. The fruit should be well shaded, especially in 

 the Western States, from the direct rays of the sun. 



The gooseberry has a habit of growth favorable for 

 training in many ways. In England the writer has seen 

 gooseberry plants said to be thirty and even forty years old 

 trained on walls and buildings of such size and spread of 

 wood that the single plant gave each year over one bushel 

 of fruit. Our American varieties in like manner can be 

 made to cover a low arbor. Indeed, as Fuller says, "It 

 may be trained as espaliers, or in almost any manner that 

 one's fancy may suggest. " 



271. Culture and Manuring. The gooseberry is pecu- 

 liarily a northern plant. In hot climates it fails altogether 

 or loses its leaves too early and the fruit is small and poor. 

 Like the currant it loves a rich soil, continued early shallow 

 culture, and mulching, when the fruit is half grown, like 

 the raspberry, to give best returns in field culture. In 

 home gardens, such American varieties as the Champion 

 can be grown on the north side of a fence where no other 

 fruit will grow, or between tree rows, where the plants can 

 only be warmed by the sun at certain hours of the day. 



