November 11 , 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 431 
U4 
COMING EVENTS 
11th 
Th 
Brixton Chrysanthemum Show. 
12th 
F 
13th 
S 
Sale of Bulbs at Air. Stevens’ Rooms, Covent Garden. 
14th 
SUN 
25tii Sunday after Trinity. [Shows. 
15th 
M 
Stoke Newington, Lambeth, and South London Chrysauthemum 
16th 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society—Fruit and Floral Committees at 
11 A.M. Putney, Walton, and Southampton Chrysauthemum 
Shows. 
17th 
W 
Royal Aquarium, Finsbury Park, Ealing and Acton, Gravesend, 
Bristol, and Dartford Chrysanthemum Shows. 
TRANSPLANTING GOOSEBERRY BUSHES- 
GOOSEBERRY CATERPILLARS. 
OR the first time for several years we have 
some leaves remaining on the Gooseberry bushes 
at pruning time, and what, too, has lately been 
unusual, we have good ripe growths of con¬ 
siderable length to be shortened. We may, 
therefore, with confidence expect fruit of larger 
size and better quality ; for although the Goose¬ 
berry is very accommodating, and never fails to pro- 
y duce abundance of fruit where the bullfinches are kept 
in check, it cannot bring that fruit to perfection with¬ 
out sufficient foliage. I suppose everybody is aware how 
insipid the fruit is from a bush which has been denuded of 
its foliage during the growing season ; but I suspect everybody 
does not bear in mind how much the crop will suffer in quality 
during the following year. It should be remembered that 
foliage is as necessary in summer as it is in spring, and that 
the processes of growing fruit buds and maturing the growths 
require the combined assistance of both leaf and root. I have 
had the most satisfactory results this season from young 
bushes which were shifted during the autumn of last year, and 
I can almost promise anyone immunity from the caterpillar 
during the coming season who will take up young bushes 
now, well wash their roots, and plant them 20 or 30 yards 
distant from ground which has been cropped this year with 
Gooseberries or Currants. It appears to me that the Goose¬ 
berry sawfly is not a great traveller, possibly it does not live long 
enough to travel far. I should like information on this point 
from entomologists, and, if it is not forthcoming I must find it 
for myself another season ; but this much I know, that only 
a wall 10 or 12 feet high separated infested from clean bushes 
which had been shifted, and that the latter, some sixty or 
seventy in number, remained clean with the exception of two 
or three which unfortunately were slightly injured late in the 
autumn. 
A similar experiment to this has been tried several times, and 
always with the same success. I therefore advise those who may 
be troubled with this pest to frequently make young plantations 
as distant as possible from the old, and where the space is 
limited to burn or remove the soil from around the roots of 
the old bushes when destroying them. I made a new plant¬ 
ation in the end of September, and have destroyed all old 
bushes except those which are on a border permanently 
covered with wire netting, of which more anon. It will not 
be too late to shift bushes any time before the middle of next 
month, but the sooner they are planted the better. More of 
Warrington is grown here than of any other variety, as it 
keeps the best; and although it is a late Gooseberry I have not 
yet found any other so good in flavour when cooked in a green 
state. Many varieties are more profitable to grow for market, 
but anyone who likes green Gooseberry tart should test other 
varieties with this, and not be satisfied with an inferior one. 
Red Champagne is the best dessert Gooseberry 1 know, but it 
will not keep with me after the middle of September. Early 
Sulphur is the best early. 
As the Gooseberry house, or rather the border, is permanently 
covered with wire netting, I have to adopt a different practice, 
and that, too, I am happy to sajq has been successful this year. 
For two seasons previously a man and a boy have spent a 
good part of their time in this enclosure picking off the cater¬ 
pillars, but the caterpillars won the day, and by the end of 
August there was scarcely a leaf to be seen. This season they 
bid fair to become more troublesome than ever, and, indeed, 
in this neighbourhood generally they were so. Most of the 
cottagers have given up attempting to grow Gooseberries, and 
acknowledge themselves defeated by bullfinches and caterpillars, 
but a few have tried to struggle on, and one old man who is 
past ordinary work tried his best to keep two bushes clean in 
his own garden, but the caterpillars were too much for him. 
Hellebore powder, I observe, is strongly recommended by some 
of your correspondents, but I will not run the risk of poisoning 
my employers, who eat Gooseberries very freely, preferring 
them to all other fruits after the Strawberries are done ; and 
my own taste agrees with theirs, for I do not consider a Peach 
or a bunch of Grapes in summer fit to be compared with a 
handful of good ripe Gooseberries. But this is merely a matter 
of taste, and we must grow all kinds for visitors if not for 
residents. 
The only safe and effectual remedy tried for caterpillars 
inside the Gooseberry house was fir-tree oil, and that was 
applied four times during the season, drenching the bushes all 
over by means of a sju’inge with a bent nozzle, at the rate of 
half a pint of the oil to three gallons of water. It is rather 
expensive to use in so large a way, but I do not expect to have 
so much trouble again, and I am in hopes of getting rid of the 
enemy altogether. One dressing was given after the Goose¬ 
berries were ripe, and that did not injure them, although 
applied during sunshine, the taste passing off in two or three 
days ; but some Currants in the same enclosure were injured 
by using it on them after they were ripe, though it did not 
harm them in the earlier stages. 
I find that different samples of water make a very great 
difference to the efficacy of this insect-killer ; that which is 
soft and has been exposed a long time to the air being the 
best, while hard water is almost useless. As a rule, I think 
the whiter the water turns when the oil is put to it, the more 
efficacious it is likely to be. 
I have previously said that we have two kinds of sawfly 
which infest our Gooseberries, totally distinct but equally de¬ 
structive ; now, as if that were not enough, we have this season 
been troubled with the larvae of another one devouring the 
leaves of our Tea Roses. I daresay all these difficulties and 
troubles with which w T e have to contend are good for us, and 
prevent us giving way to lazy habits. 
I refer to this subject now, as although there are no cater¬ 
pillars to destroy, there are numbers of Gooseberry bushes that 
No. 20.—Yol. I., Third Series. 
No. 167G.—VOL. LXIY.J Old Series. 
