V..] 



LIST OF FRUITS. 



189 



winter to take out all dead wood, all shoots that cross one another, 

 and to keep the middle of the tree clear, so that the sun and air 

 find their way to every part of it. Filberts, like every description 

 of hazel, will grow and bear under the shade of lofty trees ; but 

 the fruit is not so abundant and not nearly so fine. To preserve 

 filberts for use through the winter, and until the spring, follow 

 precisely the directions given in the case of the chestnut. There 

 are two sorts of filberts, the scarlet and the grey, those being the 

 colours of the skins of the kernels. Filberts are really never 

 good till they are quite ready to drop out of the husk, or green 

 shell, and until the bud ends of them are white : if taken out of 

 the husk at an earlier stage than this the kernels will shrivel. 



27 1 . GOOSEBERRY. -This is a fruit, which, in all its qualities, 

 is upon a par with the currant, whether for eating in its natural 

 state, for cooking, or for preserving ; for, though we in England 

 da not commonly make use of green currants, in America they 

 always make use of them in preference to green goosberries : 

 in which respect, as in a great many others, the people of that 

 country have taken their habits from the northern parts of England. 

 When the green currants are used in a cooked state, the ripe 

 gooseberries are used in that state. Gooseberries are propagated, 

 planted out, trained, and pruned, in precisely the same manner as 

 directed for currants. See paragraph 268. Neither of these little 

 shrubs should be planted by the side of walks, where they inter- 

 fere in a very troublesome manner with the cultivation of the plats 

 and borders. They should have a piece of ground devoted to 

 their exclusive occupation, and should be planted at distances 

 sufficient to allow of going round them conveniently to gather the 

 fruit. For gooseberries and currants there might be plenty of 

 room in a part of the wall between the hedge and the garden. 

 Sometimes currants are placed against a wall facing to the north ; 

 and their fruit, if properly protected, will hang on to the latter end 

 of October, or later. These two very useful fruits have most 

 destructive enemies in the small birds, especially the sparrows and 

 the finches, which feed upon their fruit-buds, and upon the fruit 

 when very young ; and the blackbirds, thrushes, and some others 

 which feed upon them when ripe. To keep the birds off in the 

 spring, see par. 29<5. As to the preserving of currants and 

 gooseberries until late in the fall, if you have preserved them until 

 they be ripe, it is a much easier matter. If the currant-tree be 



