90 STATE POMOLOaiCAL SOCIETY. 



are perfectly winter proof, the fruit is never less by being' stolen, 

 bears transportation as well as the cranberry, comes into bearing 

 early, say in three years, and holds out indefinitely, and the fruit 

 always commands a good price in market. Bat are there no 

 drawbacks to be encountered ? Ah, yes, there is one. And to 

 overcome it we have experimented not a little. It isn't mildew — 

 once the bane of the gooseberry grower, that we avoid by good 

 culture and the selection of varieties, but it is that little imported 

 scourge, the gooseberry nematus. But after all, we do not culti- 

 vate without hope, as the last prescription we have tried laid the 

 rascal low in a trice. This remedy is no other than a strong 

 decoction of poke root, (white helebore), applied to the foliage as 

 soon as the worms make their appearance, when a troubled diges- 

 tion soon spoils a voracious appetite. 



The currant and gooseberry are vigorous growers, and of course 

 need large supplies of food. Their roots are small and fibrous, so 

 dressing needs to be applied directly, generously, and at least 

 annually. Any well rotted manure will be found beneficial, but a 

 compost formed of forest leaves, swamp muck, rotten wood, gyp- 

 sum and wood ashes, well decomposed and mixed, and cultivated 

 in about the roots " will tell " the best results. There is not 

 much danger of manuring too high, especially for currants. The 

 roots grow in small compass, and unless they are supplied with 

 plenty of food, and the ground kept light and mellow and free 

 from weeds and grass, the fruit will be small no matter what the 

 variety may be. In starting a plantation of these fruits we pur- 

 chase plants from the nursery, costing about six cents each. 

 These are cuttings well rooted in the nursery. After the ground 

 is prepared, it is marked off both ways in rows four feet apart, 

 setting the plants where the lines intersect. They should be set 

 so that when the soil is nicely packed about the roots the plants 

 will set a little lower than the surrounding surface. They should 

 be hoed frequently to loosen the soil and keep down the weeds. 

 To guard against the great heat of summer it is beneficial to mulch 

 gooseberries with chip manure or tan bark to keep the ground 

 cool and moist. 



The same system of pruning applies to both the currant and 

 gooseberry, which consists in cutting out the old wood occasion- 

 ally and shortening in the new. The fruit is borne mostly on 

 wood after two years old, so when wood has produced two or 

 three years it is better to cut it out and induce the growth of new 



