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The white varieties are the mildest flavoured, and, therefore, 
better for eating when used fresh from the bush. The red are 
preferable for jellies, ete., on iccount of their beautiful colour; 
many of them possess a musky taste. Currants may be planted 
5ft. x 5ft. or 6ft. x 4ft. apart. 
Biack Napies.—One of the largest and hest black currants; 
has a musky flavour. A vigorous grower, bears profusely after a 
few years. 
LeEe’s Prouiric.—Very similar in quality to the Black Naples, 
but the plants are more productive. 
‘VERSAILLES.—Dark red, not so acid as the cherry, which it re- 
sembles. Fruit of the largest size. Plant a coarse grower, productive 
and excellent for marketing purposes. The shoots are apt to break 
off at the base. Best trained supported. 
Wautre Dutcu.—A vigorous, upright grower; productive; very 
large and sweet berries, yellowish white, transparent with white 
veins; good for dessert. 
GOOSEBERRIES (Libes grossularia). 
Low, deciduous shrubs, stems mostly thorny at the base of the 
leaf-stalks; in some the thorns are scattered. Fruit: one-celled 
berry, produced in smal] clusters, smooth or prickly. 
They are strongly acid fruits, that come early in the season, and 
in the cooler and high level localities should be grown largely for 
family use. In such localities any good soil, well drained, well culti- 
vated, and manured will grow good crops of gooseberries. They re- 
spond well to liberal applications of potash. In Europe this is one 
of the popular berries, and small fruit-growers figure on obtaining 
greater profit from the gooseberry crop than from any other shrub 
fruit. They require annual pruning, mulching, and some attention. 
The bushes may be set in rows 6ft. apart or 1,200 to the acre. 
Gooseberry culture has not, so far, attained the importance in Aus- 
tralia which is devoted to it in England, mainly on account of the 
thorny nature of the bushes. By dint of persevering attention, how- 
ever, some varieties of spineless gooseberries have been obtained 
and established, the colours of which range from rose to almost 
black. 
Layering is a sure and quick method of propagating the goose- 
berry; suckers are rejected on account of the tendency to produce 
more suckers; cuttings from well-ripened, vigorous growths are, of 
all the methods of propagating this bush, the method most generally 
adopted; all buds and prickles are removed for a few inches from 
the lower end. 
The best wethod of harvesting the gooseberry is to pull the 
berries from the bushes by stripping with a hard-gloved hand and 
blowing off what leaves may have also come off when pulling. 
