THE GOOSEBERRY. 



on 



espaliers or open bushes as if trained against a 

 wall. The season for planting is October and 

 beginning of November. The ground should be 

 deeply trenched and highly manured previous 

 to planting, keeping the manure well down in 

 the trenches. All future enrichment should be 

 in shape of top-dressing, slightly forked, but not 

 dug in; or better, liberal supplies of liquid 

 manure during the period of their growth. The 

 space generally recommended for gooseberries 

 is from 8 to 10 feet between the rows, and 6 

 feet plant from plant. This distance is on the 

 presumption that the bushes are to grow to the 

 usual absurd size we see them so often per- 

 mitted to do. Much smaller plants, and these 

 often renewed, occupy much less space, and 

 yield greater crops in proportion. 



Pruning and training. — Young plants receiv- 

 ing their first pruning require care, for on this 

 the proper form the bush is afterwards to 

 assume depends. At this time select five or 

 six of the best-placed shoots; if equidistant or 

 nearly so, so much the better, cutting all the 

 others away, and shortening the remaining shoots 

 about half their length. The centre should 

 always be kept open like a vase, so that the air 

 and light may find their way freely to eveiy 

 part of the plant. The season following they 

 will have made many shoots, some drooping 

 outwards, some nearly horizontal, some nearly 

 growing upright, for the habit of the gooseberry 

 varies much according to the variety. The 

 majority of the large Lancashire sorts assume a 

 . pendant or creeping habit, and therefore require 

 to be supported upon a hoop or horizontal trel- 

 lis. In November established plants should be 

 pruned if the attacks of birds on the buds during 

 winter and spring be not apprehended, and 

 then all branches that cross each other should 

 be removed, still keeping the middle of the bush 

 somewhat open, shortening the pendulous shoots 

 a little above the point where they touch the 

 ground to prevent their coming in contact with 

 it. The main branches should be kept at least 

 7 or 8 inches apart; all the young wood not 

 required for modelling the plant is removed by 

 some by cutting it close to the old stem, and the 

 terminal shoots shortened to nearly half their 

 length, and even more if the wood is weak, 

 although some allow them to remain their full 

 length; and this practice answers very well 

 where moderate-sized fruit is desired, because 

 it will be produced almost along the whole 

 length of the shoot. Where large fruit is an 

 object, then shortening the young wood should 

 be followed ; those who adopt the former prac- 

 tice calculate upon a supply of young wood 

 being produced in succession from the base of 

 the former shoots, or from the main stem itself. 

 Those who follow the latter mode procure their 

 supply of young wood from a bud near to where 

 the amputation took place. Some depend on 

 the spurs, some on the two-year-old wood, and 

 others on the young shoots of the previous 

 season, for their fruit, and no doubt the finest 

 fruit is produced on the latter. "Winter pruning 

 should be finished by the beginning of November. 

 As the bushes begin to get worn out by age 

 the knife must be used more freely, and whole 



limbs removed to make way for a fresh supply, 

 to be selected from the most promising and best 

 placed young wood. 



We are no advocates for large overgrown old 

 bushes, and would rather keep up a stock of young 

 plants, and grub out the old ones progressively; 

 not, however, planting the same ground, but 

 beginning the plantation in another part of the 

 garden, thus affording a change of soil as well as 

 insuring finer fruit, for the largest berries will be 

 found on plants of three or four years' growth, 

 carrying out, so far, the principle of rotation. 

 Another advantage attends a renewal of goose- 

 berry plantations — that the caterpillar seldom 

 attacks them for the first year or two after 

 planting : a matter easily accounted for, as the 

 ground up to about that time has not become the 

 nidus of the insect in its chrysalis state, which, 

 to exist there, must first fall from the trees. 

 Gooseberries maybe trained with great advantage 

 in the espalier manner,both as regards facihtating 

 the gathering of the crop, and exposing the fruit 

 more fully to the sun (for to have high-flavoured 

 gooseberries, hke all other fruit, they should not 

 be grown in the shade), as well as economising 

 space. The trellises should be placed in parallel 

 lines, and 6 feet apart; nor need they exceed 

 3 feet in height. Curvilinear trellises are also an 

 excellent mode of training both the gooseberry 

 and the currant; and when these are of sufii- 

 cieut height to form arcades over walks, they 

 offer considerable training-space without caus- 

 ing much waste of ground. The fruit amateur 

 might cover all his walks in this way with vari- 

 ous kinds of fruit trees, making the space which 

 would otherwise be occupied with the walk the 

 border for the roots, and covering it with cast- 

 iron grating laid on rails, to render it comfort- 

 able for walking on, and that without injury to 

 the roots. For specimens of such trellises, vide 

 vol. i, figs. 795, 787. 



In removing superfluous young wood, cut 

 close into the old branches, for the gooseberiy 

 will produce natural spurs abundantly, and all 

 attempts at creating artificial ones only tend to 

 increase the formation of an unnecessary quan- 

 tity of leaves and small spray. The finest fruit 

 is produced on young wood, therefore in winter- 

 pruning reserve a supply of this, and cut out old 

 branches progressively to make room for it. It 

 is quite possible to continue the gooseberry for 

 years if attention be paid to this. 



The gooseberry is trained in the Trentham 

 gardens by being planted between two lines of 

 espaliers about 4 feet in height and 9 inches 

 apart ; the branches are trained inside of the 

 rails, which keeps them in a limited space, ad- 

 mitting of a larger supply being obtained on the 

 same space of ground than in the ordinary- 

 manner of bush-growing. They are also much 

 easier protected from frosts in spring, and from 

 the attacks of birds on the buds and fruit, and are 

 much easier gathered. It is also trained as a 

 standard 3 or 4 feet in height of stem, and in 

 this way produces high-flavoured fruit ; and if 

 those of drooping habits, such as many of the 

 large Lancashire sorts, were trained in this man- 

 ner, and their branches brought over a hoop at 

 that height, and trained pendant in a way similar 



