SMALL AND BUSH FRUITS. 



21 



Select List oe "White Gooseberries. 



Antagonist — fruit very 

 large, one of the best for 

 exhibition, and good 

 bearer. 



Brighc Venus — fruit me- 

 dium size, sugary, and 

 rich flavour, and hangs 

 till it shrivels ; and good 

 bearer. 



Careless — fruit very large 

 and handsome, flavour 

 good ; bears freely. 



Freedom — fruit large, fla- 

 vour good, and bears 

 freely. 



King of Trumps— fruit large, 

 flavour good, and free 

 bearer. 



Lady Leicester — fruit large ; 



a good early variety. 

 Whitesmith — fruit large ; 



one of the best "Whites, 



first-rate flavour. 



Dessert G oosebe) ries. 

 Ironmonger — medium size, 

 first-rate flavour, and bears 

 freely. 



Keen's Seedling — medium 

 size, and of first-rate 

 quality, and great bearer. 



Pitmaston Greengage— fruit 

 small, very sugary, and 

 rich. It keeps well. 



Eed Champagne — fruit me- 

 dium size, flavour very 

 rich, tree erect, and a 

 good bearer ; a well-known 

 variety. 



Red Warrington — fruit 

 above medium size ; a 

 first-rate variety, either 

 for dessert or preserving, 

 also one of the best keep- 

 ing. It will hang on the 

 tree if protected till the 

 fruit shrivels. 



Supplementary 



Overall. 

 Rifleman. 

 Roaring Lion. 



Broom Girl. 

 Conquering Hero. 

 Early Sulphur. 



Glenton Green. 

 Green London. 

 Matchless. 



Monster. 



Queen of Trumps. 

 Snowball. 



List of Gooseberries. 

 Eed. 



I Rough Red. 



Slaughterman. 

 | Wilmot's Early Red. 



Yellow. 



I Golden Drop. 



Yellow Champagne. 

 | Yellow Smith. 



Green. 



Rough Green. 

 Surprise. 

 I Telegraph. 



White. 



Snowdrop. 

 White Champagne. 

 White Lion. 



Twenty-four of the Heaviest Goose- 

 berries for Exhibition. — The following are 

 among the heaviest Gooseberries ever grown : — 



Monster Red Gooseberries. 



Beauty .... 

 Clapton . . . . 

 Conquering Hero . 



34 dwts. 



32 



Lion's Provider 30 dwts, 

 London . 30 to 35 ,, 

 Ploughman . . 30 „ 



Monster Green Gooseberries 



Green London 

 Green Overall 

 Leader . . 

 Stockwell . 



27 dwts. 

 27 „ 

 25 „ 

 30 „ 



Shiner (the heaviest 

 Green Gooseberry) 31 dwts. 



Thumper 



Monster Yellow Gooseberries. 



Drill (probably the 

 largest Gooseberry 

 in cultivation, and. 

 of fair quality) . 32 dwts. 



Catherina . . . 

 Leveller . . . 

 Mount Pleasaut . 

 Pilot 



Monster White Gooseberries. 



Antagonist . . . 34 dwts. Hero of the Nile . 



Careless .... 31 „ King of Trumps . 



Freedom .... 29 ,, Snowdrop . . . 



30 



32 dwts. 



30 ,, 



31 „ 

 30 „ 



28 dwts. 

 28 „ 

 34 „ 



The greater portion of these large sorts, if gathered 

 in time, are capital for tarts or hottling, among the 

 very "best for the latter purpose being Cheshire Lass, 

 Dan's Mistake, Queen of Trumps, Companion, and 

 the Yellow Eumbullion, the latter being grown very 



extensively for this purpose, for which it is thought 

 more suitable than the Green variety of the same 

 name. 



For converting into preserves, there are, perhaps, 

 no better Gooseberries than the Rough Red and the 

 Warrington, though the Yellow Globe and Sulphur 

 are also largely used for this purpose. 



In most of the very large varieties the percentage 

 of juice to rind is too high for making a satisfactory 

 jam, and Green and White are apt to prove wanting 

 in colour, though, as to that, a good deal depends on, 

 the sugar and the making. 



Cultivation in Pots and Tubs.— As the 



Gooseberry fruits freely in a small state, and may be 

 grown for years without exceeding a yard in height 

 or diameter, it readily yields to pot-culture. It is 

 found in practice that a ten or twelve-inch pot, or 

 a one or two-gallon cask, or old packing -box or 

 basket, will grow Gooseberry bushes well, and not a 

 few cottagers, who have little or no garden, have long 

 practised this method of producing them, and some of 

 the most fruitful and amazingly perfect Gooseberry 

 bushes seen by the writer have been those of such 

 fertile sorts as the Yellow Sulphur exhibited at 

 flower shows in pots. Pot up the plants in October 

 or Xovember, using exactly the same soil or slightly 

 richer than that recommended for the open air. 

 Plunge the pots overhead, and mulch the surface of the 

 pots with four inches of soil or manure for the winter. 

 They may be placed where desired in yard, balcony, or 

 on leads for the summer, and if the pots can be placed 

 in others a size larger, should they have to stand in 

 the sun, so much the better. In any case mulch the 

 surface with cocoa-fibre refuse or moss if near to 

 a Kving-room, with manure if not, to retain the mois- 

 ture and preserve the roots cool. Gooseberries in 

 pots must never once be permitted to flag for lack of 

 water, and if specially fed and treated as advised for 

 those in the open, they will yield good crops of ex- 

 cellent quality for many years in succession. They 

 may also be grown in cool, shady back yards, or 

 vacant spaces on the north and east sides of dwell- 

 ing-houses, stables, or other buildings, where few 

 other plants would thrive, and scarcely any fruits 

 could ripen. One special caution must be given to 

 those who attempt the culture of Gooseberries in 

 novel forms and positions, and that is to beware of 

 birds on the buds or at the fruit. Frequent sulphur, 

 soot, or lime dustings, or one smear, will protect the 

 former, and close netting the latter. Birds often 

 seem to ignore fruit -buds or fruit in fresh places, 

 but when they do espy them they mostly attack with 

 such violence and force as to make a clearance in a 

 very short time, the writer having once a dozen 

 Peach-trees in tubs cleared of buds in about an hour ; 



