CHAPTER XXX. 

 THE GOOSEBERRY. 



\ S already stated, the gooseberry is closely allied bo- 

 jf\. tanically to the currant, and in many respects 

 demands similar culture. Both are to a certain 

 extent cool weather growers, and both send forth 

 green shoots in early spring. Their insect enemies 

 are much the same, but the gooseberry is more liable 

 to disastrous attacks of mildew than the currant. 



It is said that we do not yet know the real value 

 of the gooseberry ; that it is so far inferior in the 

 United States to the gooseberry of England as to be a 

 different and poorer fruit. Our remedy, of course, is 

 to breed up to the European standard. It is asserted 

 that our hot summer sun is an insurmountable obstacle 

 in the way of gooseberry perfection, but I have full 

 faith that Yankee ingenuity will overcome this dif- 

 ficulty. 



The fact is that the gooseberry has a true place in 

 our domestic economy. It has tart qualities that are 

 of the highest culinary value. It need not be either 

 sour or bitter, but only pleasantly acid, and it thus 

 makes one of the most agreeable of sauces or pie fillers. 



Besides, the gooseberry can be raised without much 

 trouble, picked in a quick and wholesale manner, and 

 marketed at distant points without danger of loss. I 

 have recently seen the culture of the gooseberry prac- 

 ticed on a large scale by enterprising men who talk of 

 tonnage rather than of number of crates in a crop, and 

 who have proved beyond doubt that gooseberry culture 

 may be made profitable. 



