58 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 28, 185C. 
be an open one well exposed to the sun. If planted 
under the drip of trees the fruit will be small, the trees 
weak, and altogether unsatisfactory. If the situation is 
low, with a damp or wet subsoil, the trees should be 
planted on raised ridges, with a quantity of broken 
brick-ends or stones under each plant, taking care, how¬ 
ever, to have at least a foot of soil for the roots to extend 
and draw nourishment from. On high grounds the soil 
should be fully eighteen inches deep, and the draining 
may be dispensed with ; in such a situation shelter from 
high winds is indispensable. I once saw a garden ex¬ 
posed to the winds from the sea. I happened to call just 
after a hurricane, and found many of the Gooseberry- 
bushes blown off close to the soil, and carried to the 
further side of the garden, and those that were left had 
many of their branches broken down. 
This plant thrives best in fresh loam made of decayed 
turf mixed with well-rotted dung; but in old gardens, 
where, from the old age of the plants, it may be necessary 
to renew the bushes, I have found a couple of wheel 
barrows of soil from the compost-heap to each plant a 
good substitute for the loam. 
2. Planting .—The best season for this operation is the 
autumn. It is a well-known fact that deciduous trees 
planted in autumn almost immediately push forth new 
roots, and thus accumulate a larger stock of sap to push 
forth shoots than such as are planted later in the season. 
The Lancashire growers generally plant their fine large 
sorts in rows five feet apart every way ; but, for general 
purposes in good ground, I would recommend six feet 
apart. Some, for convenience, plant them on borders 
round the garden, which is a good plan enough ; yet I 
think a square compartment is the best, because then no 
other crops can be grown to rob the trees of their nourish¬ 
ment; and all the operations of pruning, top-dressing, and 
gathering the fruit can be performed at the proper 
seasons, without interfering with, or injuring any other 
plants or crops. 
3. Winter Management .—This includes pruning, dig¬ 
ging, and mulching. Pruning .—The best season for this 
is as soon as the leaves are all fallen from the trees, 
extending from November to February. It should 
always be finished before the buds begin to swell, else 
there would be a waste of sap and strength. Cut out 
the cross-shoots and coarse, strong shoots of the preced¬ 
ing summer. Thin them regularly all over the tree, cut 
each shoot close to the old stem, so that no incipient 
buds are loft to produce useless strong shoots the next 
season. Prune long, straggling branches back to a well- 
placed side-shoot. As the plants become old some 
branches will be found unproductive : such should be cut 
clean out, taking care to leave a young, healthy shoot to 
fill up the space. Young trees should have all the strong 
shoots cut in to two-thirds of their length, to cause a good 
supply of shoots to form a neat, compact bush; but care 
must be taken that the centre of each should be left open, 
to admit the rays of the sun to ripen the fruit and wood. 
Afterwards severe pruning should always be avoided. 
A garden that I once entered into the management of 
had a compartment of Gooseberry-bushes in it that had 
been for several years severely pruned; so much so, that 
every bush was a complete mass of young wood, which 
was so crowded, that what little fruit was produced was 
useless. Thinking the matter over, I came to the deter¬ 
mination not to prune them at all for one season. The 
consequence was, that very little young wood was made 
the following summer, and a great crop of fruit; and, 
besides that, a great number of fruit-spurs, short and 
stubby, were formed. The autumn following I went over 
them regularly, thinning the branches, but still avoiding 
cutting back any young shoots at all. The upshot of 
this management in pruning was—healthy trees well 
stocked with bearing-wood, which for five years, the time 
I remained there, produced as great crops and as fine 
fruit as I ever saw. Let this example be a warning to 
all growers of this fruit to be cautious in cutting back 
young shoots. Those who grow Gooseberries for size 
only adopt a different method of pruning. They never 
aim at quantity, and, as the largest fruit is produced on 
young shoots, they never reserve what I call spurs. I 
have observed, this last summer, several of the gardens 
of these growers. Their bushes are low, trained out 
from the main stem quite flat, and kept so either by 
short sticks and hooks, or by a hoop fastened to short 
stakes, and the branches tied regularly round to the 
hoop. 
The Gooseberry is sometimes pruned so as to form a 
standard, with a clear stem three or four feet high. I 
saw some fine examples of this mode in the gardens at 
Trentlmm and Chatsworth. For early-ripened fruit 
plant a few trees against a south wall, training them 
in upright shoots six or eight to a tree. The spur- 
method of pruning should be adopted for trees so trained. 
When the pruning is finished the cut-off shoots should 
be all cleared away to the rubbish-yard to be burnt, and 
then a good coating of dung should be spread over the 
ground, and carefully forked in, so as not to disturb the 
roots. Digging with a spade is very bad husbandry, for 
the spade is sure to bruise, cut, and destroy many of the 
roots. The plantation may then be left through the 
winter. Referring again to the growers for weight and 
size only, they adopt the following method :—They first 
mix a quantity of turfy loam with dung, then open a 
trench all round each tree a foot deep, then wheeling 
away the old soil, and replacing it with the new. Into 
this fresh earth the roots run, and, consequently, draw 
up a large amount of nutriment to support and swell 
out the large fruit the succeeding season. 
To bring even ordinary crops to the highest point of 
excellence in size, colour, and flavour, it will be of 
great advantage, just after the winter frosts are over, to 
give a mulching of short, littery dung, covering the 
ground under each bush as far as the roots may be 
supposed to extend. This should be allowed to remain 
all through the summer. It keeps the soil moist and 
cool, and the roots in full action. Trees so cared for 
will produce much finer fruit than those managed in 
the ordinary way. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
GENERAL NOTES FOR NOVEMBER. 
The operations in the kitchen garden will he limited to a 
few things in comparison with the multiplicity of business 
that had to he done in the preceding months ; nevertheless, 
there is an urgent necessity now, with the fear of a sharp 
frost looming in the murky distance, and disturbing us every 
night that the stars twinkle brightly in the sky, to house 
and protect our fruits, flowers, and vegetables; for, when the 
first sharp frost finds us asleep, our regrets that we had not 
been better prepared will be unavailing. Therefore, the 
sooner the Cauliflowers showing heads are carefully taken 
up with balls of earth the better, packing them closely 
together in beds, with some clean straw at hand to cover and 
save them from the frost. If the Carrots and other roots 
were not stored as recommended last month, we would again 
forewarn all whom it may concern of the great danger of 
postponing it any longer. A sowing of Songster's No. 1 Peas 
and Mazagan Beans may be made about the middle of the 
month on slightly raised ridges, the rows to be made on 
the side of the ridge that is most sheltered. The fruit-tree 
borders are generally selected for these crops, which aro 
more productive of injury to the fruit-trees than either the 
attacks of insects or unfavourable weather. The deep 
digging necessary for them will cut up the top and best 
roots, and the Peas and Beans will deprive the trees of the 
rains that fall in the early part of the summer, while there 
is a genial warmth and moisture in the atmosphere, than 
which no two things could be more favourable for the 
