178 Cultivation of the Gooseberry. 
them from breaking under their load of fruit. As to quantity, I 
was highly giatified to observe that they bore as largely as the 
best examples I had seen in England. 
The Gooseberries in the garden of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, grew on 
a long strip of giass, about four feet wide. They are not, I ap- 
prehend, the largest and choicest fruit, and at first did not keep 
pace with some of the later imported kinds. The grass, instead 
of being cut, was suffered to grow among the bushes. I was 
struck with the luxuriant manner they grew, from the wet and 
dew thus afforded. While the grape and cherry were rapidly 
decaying, the berries of the gooseberry were entirely free from 
decay, being clear and bright skiimed. Those in dry grounds 
were much diseased, and the bushes had become a nuisance. 
I have already adverted to the peculiarity of the blossoms of 
the currant, resisting heavy rains. The Gooseberry blossoms are 
similarly constituted, and entirely different from the flowers of the 
grape, the apple, the peach, and the plum. 1 have thought that 
grass may be further serviceable to the Gooseberry, by abstract- 
ing from the soil those substances which foster the growth of 
minute fungi. This, however, is offered rather as a matter of 
conjecture, than from actual proof, and requires further investiga- 
tion to determine. 
I do not expect that the plan recommended will be perfectly 
successful the first year, after the removal of the Gooseberry shrubs 
among grass, or when sodded, though I do in the second season. 
The forming buds are injured, and the bark diseased by exposure 
to hot weather during the months of August and September, when 
they are not protected by grass, and sufficiently supplied by dew 
and moisture. The Gooseberry is a dew-loving plant, and must 
be supplied with moisture, otherwise it cannot flourish here as in 
Europe. 
The wild American strawberry furnishes another striking ex- 
ample of a berry growing among grass. This seems its favorite 
place, or habitat, as the botanists would say. They grow in 
grassy meadows in argilaceous soils, (which are best adapted to 
hold moisture,) much better and sweeter, that when suffocated 
among their own dense leaves in the garden. 
I remember to have seen a garden in England, devoted to the 
cultivation of the strawberry, where the leaves and vines became 
too luxuriant, and they yielded but little fruit. As an experiment 
one bed was underlaid with a reddish clay, fit for brick-making, 
and nests or a mixture of soil was prepared for the strawberry 
plants. The difference w^as most striking; it seemed as if this 
bed was all fruit, and the others only leaves. I have observed 
some similar examples of this preference to clay in meadows, in 
new cleared lands in this country, where the wood ashes and car- 
