188 GOOSEBERRIES. 



ingly ; so that a bush of fifteen or twenty years' standing 

 will rarely require its extreme shoot to be left more than 

 six inches in length. 



It is also necessary to bear in mind that the large 

 Lancashire Gooseberries, and which are chiefly pendent 

 growers, require to have much more space between their 

 branches than the Champagne, and other upright 

 growers : the former, therefore, ought not to have them 

 much less than a foot apart, nor the latter nearer than 

 nine inches, when the winter pruning is finished. 



In the annual prunings, there will always be a number 

 of shoots, and some, perhaps, of the most vigorous, pro- 

 duced from various parts of the head, particularly from 

 the upper side of the diverging limbs : these must be 

 cut off quite close and smooth, so as to remove entirely 

 their bottom eyes, to prevent a succession of still stronger 

 shoots, which would otherwise be produced ; thus keep- 

 ing the heads open, and consisting of fruit-bearing 

 branches only. 



When the spurs of gooseberries have borne fruit for 

 two or three years, and become numerous, they should 

 be thinned out, leaving the young ones only : by this 

 means the fruit will have more room to swell, and its 

 flavour consequently improved. 



CURRANTS, as was observed at the commencement of 

 this article, when planted as open bushes, require a 

 management but little differing from that of the goose- 

 berry : this consists, chiefly, in leaving their shoots atia 

 greater length in the annual prunings. In the dessert, 

 the largest bunches have always the best appearance, and 

 it rarely happens that they are not the best. 



To obtain these, the bushes must be kept very thin 

 of wood, clearing away all young shoots from the mid- 

 dle, as they are produced, and thinning out the spurs, 

 leaving those only which are young, and at a few inches' 

 distance from each other. The large white crystal 



