178 
Unless gooseberries are pruned, the fruit never or seldom 
attains to any sie, and the bush is soon exhausted. The gooseberry, 
like the currant, bears well on spurs of two years or older wood; 
they also bear well on the young annual shoots, when these are left 
with a certain amount of discretion. 
The illustration, one and two-years old wood on a gooseberry 
branch, shows on the older wood natural spurs forming all along it, 
and also two lateral shoots eut back at (xx). Unless these had 
been cut back it would have been almost impossible to pass the 
hand down the head of the bush for gathering the crop. It is 
essential that all laterals should be shortened to at least allow the 
hand to reach to the centre of the bush. A young shoot as shown 
in the figure may be left at intervals, so 
as to enable the cutting back every few 
years of the worn-out older spur-earrying 
shoots in the centre, as the bushes have 
‘a tendency to soon cease bearing, except 
on the outside. 
The currant bushes are formed in the 
same way as the gooseberry, but when 
the plant has as many branches as 
it can carry, the additional growth of 
7 ¢ 
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Wa Bob SBS < 
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” 
A red currant bush after pruning.—J. WRIGHT. 
fresh new wood should not be encouraged. 
The distance between the branches should 
be such that the hat can be put amongst 
them. The illustration shows mostly 
fruit buds, except at the extremity of 
the branehes, where the young wood has 
been eut back to about nine inches. In 
the summer both the gooseberry and the 
Sn a. a, WDE ‘Y° currant receive the following treatment :— 
