114 Pruning the Gooseberry. 



Art. III. Pruning the Gooseberry. By Mr. Robert 

 Thompson, Superintendent of the Orchard and Kitchen 

 Garden Department of the London Horticultural Society. 

 With Remarks. By the Editor. 



In Great Britain the gooseberry is one of the most impor- 

 tant of the smaller fruits, and its cultivation has been carried 

 to a high state of perfection. From the small and austere 

 wild fruit, no larger than that which we find in our own 

 pastures, and on the borders of neglected fields, have been 

 raised the large and superior sorts which occupy so prominent 

 a place in the gardens of the poor and the wealthy, — the 

 peasant and the prince, throughout Great Britain. To show 

 how much attention has been given to this fruit it is only 

 necessary to state, that nearly one thousand varieties are 

 enumerated in Lindley's Guide to the Orchard, (1830,) up- 

 wards of two hundred of which, possessed nearly equal merit, 

 and varied in weight from fourteen to twenty-five penny- 

 weights each ; and since then improvement has been carried 

 so far, that the heaviest berries have reached the weight of 

 thirty-three pennyweights each ! 



In our gardens the Gooseberry does not hold so prominent 

 a place, and its cultivation from various causes, seems to 

 have been much neglected. In our climate, it has been so 

 subject to mildew, that in many localities it is rendered al- 

 most worthless ; and in others, where the fruit escapes this 

 malady, it is rare that the varieties cultivated attain more 

 than half the weight which they do in British gardens. It 

 seems therefore, that their cultivation is not fully understood, 

 or is greatly neglected ] for while many fruits quite equal 

 their foreign reputation, the gooseberry alone appears to fall 

 far below it. 



The attention of our cultivators is, we are glad to know, 

 now being more directed to this fruit than heretofore, and 

 efforts are making to produce seedlings of our wild gooseberry, 

 which is not attacked with the mildew, of increased size and 

 quality. The first advance has already been achieved in 

 that prolific variety, Houghton's Seedling, and with this for 



