132 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Shepherd's Bullace, which, after the light frosts of early October, 

 cooks splendidly and makes very toothsome jam. 



Wherever bullfinches abound a very sharp look-out should 

 be kept with a gun over the Plums from early in February 

 till they have done blooming, or the handsome red-breasted and 

 black velvet-capped gentlemen will strip the branches of almost 

 every single bloom-bud. For this reason it is well to plant 

 the Plums as near the house as possible, as bullfinches are 

 generally a little shy at coming near to traffic. 



3. Gooseberries. — I am not at all sure I ought not to have 

 put these before Plums, they are so very valuable where there is 

 a family, and to an unjaded palate the ripe fruit is delicious. It 

 is astonishing to me why this fruit should of late years have been 

 so much neglected ! How many bushes there should be it is hard 

 to say — there can scarcely be too many ; twenty-five to forty at 

 least, considering their twofold use for cooking and dessert. 

 There are so many good varieties that I almost hesitate to name 

 any, but every collection should include Whitesmith, Bobby, 

 Crown Bob, Pitmaston Greengage, Whinham's Industry, Keep- 

 sake, Early Sulphur, Warrington, Leader, Broomgirl, and 

 Leveller. Three bushes of each of the first three named and 

 two each of the others would make a good twenty-four, but so 

 fond am I personally of Gooseberries, and so wholesome are 

 they, that I would recommend a still larger number. 



In gathering Gooseberries green for cooking, either a small 

 plantation of Whinham's Industry or Keepsake (or of both) 

 should be grown specially for the purpose, or else care should be 

 particularly taken that all the bushes be thinned, and not entire 

 bushes stripped at a picking. Indeed, even if a special planta- 

 tion be grown for cooking, it is better to take a few from each 

 bush when any are wanted than all from one. 



Gooseberries are often planted singly along the paths of the 

 kitchen garden, but in many country places the birds would not 

 leave us a single berry unless the bushes are netted both from 

 the time of pruning till the blooming is over, and then again 

 when the fruit is ripe. We, therefore, prefer to grow them in a 

 patch for ease of netting. Lines of flat-trained bushes in hedge 

 form are recommended, as they are so easily netted, but I have 

 personally no experience of them. Very early fruit can be had 

 by planting cordons on a south or west wall, if it is to spare, 



