THE GOOSEBERRY. 
295 
the season of cherries, it is always most acceptable. Unripe 
gooseberries are bottled in water for winter use, (placing the 
bottles nearly filled, a few moments in boiling water, after- 
wards corking and sealing them, and burying them in a cool 
cellar, with their necks downward.) As a luxury for the poor, 
Mr. Loudon considers this the most valuable of all fruits, “since 
it can be grown in less space, in more unfavourable circum- 
stances, and brought sooner into bearing than any other.” In 
the United States the gooseberry, in humble gardens, is ire- 
quentl} T seen in a very wretched state — the fruit poor and small, 
and covered with mildew. This arises partly from ignorance 
of a proper mode of cultivation, but chiefly from the sorts grown 
being very inferior ones, always much liable to this disease. 
Propagation. Gooseberry plants should only be raised from 
cuttings. New varieties are of course raised from seed, but no 
one here will attempt to do what, under more favourable cir- 
cumstances, the Lancashire growers can do so much better. In 
preparing cuttings select the strongest and straightest young 
shoots of the current year, at the end of October (or very early 
in the ensuing spring ;) cut out all the buds that you intend to 
go below the ground (to prevent future suckers,) and plant the 
cuttings in a deep rich soil, on the north side of a fence, or in 
some shaded border. The cuttings should be inserted six inch- 
es deep, and from three to six or eight inches should remain 
above ground. The soil should be pressed very firmly about 
the cuttings, and, in the case of autumn planting, it should be 
examined in the spring, to render it firm again should the cut- 
ting have been raised by severe frost. After they have become 
well rooted — generally in a year’s time — they may be trans- 
planted to the borders, where they are finally to remain. 
Cultivation. The gooseberry in our climate is very impa- 
tient of drought, and we have uniformly found that the best soil 
for it is a deep strong loam, or at least whatever may be the 
soil, and it will grow in a great variety, it should always be 
deep — if not naturally so, it should be made deep by trenching 
and manuring. It is the most common error to plant this fruit 
shrub under the branches of other trees for the sake of their 
shade — as it always renders the fruit inferior in size and fla- 
vour, and more likely to become mouldy. On the contrary, we 
would always advise planting in an open border, as, if the 
soil is sufficiently deep, the plants will not suffer from dryness, 
and should it unfortunately be of a dry nature, it may be ren- 
dered less injurious by covering the ground under the plants 
with straw or litter. In any case a rich soil is necessary, and 
as the gooseberry is fond of manure a pretty heavy top-dressing 
should be dug in every year, around bearing plants. For a 
later crop a few bushels may be set on the north side of a fence 
or wall. 
