72 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— November 4, 1S5C. 
PRUNING THE GOOSEBERRY. 
Pruning, although understood by professionals, is 
not so by thousands of amateurs and untried men. For 
the latter class I intend to offer a little plain advice 
detailing the practical minutiae which belong to pruning. 
It may be here observed, that some classification of the 
bushes is necessary in order.to understand the question 
aright. The following points may serve to classify 
them :— 
1st. Mode of growth. 
2nd. Age of the bush. 
3rd. Vigour of the bush. 
As to the mode of growth, it must be tolerably obvious 
to most Gooseberry growers, that a drooping tree whose 
points touch the soil should not be pruned exactly 
similarly to one that grows upright. As an instance of 
the former I may quote the Warrington, and of the 
latter the old Champagne- Gooseberries are seldom 
trained on stems sufficiently tall in the nurseries, 
especially the drooping kinds, which should, in my 
opinion, be on stems a foot high at least. I will now 
proceed to the details of the pruning, and will suppose 
the first case to be a drooping bush, such as the 
Warrington. In almost all cases of Gooseberry pruning, 
thinning out is the first operation ; but I have had cases 
of strong-growing droopers in which it was expedient 
to have recourse to the hedge shears previously to 
venturing in with the knife. By removing many of 
the tips of the shoots with alight hand the knife may 
be passed freely amongst them, and the thinning out 
performed both with greater ease and precision. It 
is an established maxim to keep the centre of the 
bush very open; for thin how we may, it is almost 
sure to become filled up during the following summer. 
Indeed, under all circumstances, it is far better to 
depend for the crop on those exterior portions which are 
exposed to the light than on any amount of interior 
shoots. 
In looking carefully over the interior of the bush 
many shoots of the past summer may be perceived, 
which, springing from old spurs of former years situated 
on the main branches, are forced up perpendicularly, 
or, indeed, sometimes converge. Most of these are 
useless, and nothing can justify the retention of many 
but a lack of exterior shoots. Every shoot should 
assuredly be pruned away which springs up in the very 
centre; for in a well-pruned tree, when finished, there 
should be a hollow cylinder kind of opening down the 
middle of at least six inches in diameter; that is to say, 
in trees of any size and age. After this, what spray is 
left should be about six inches apart in the interior, 
and so selected as to point rather towards the outside of 
the tree. 
Now we come to the thinning out of the outside 
portion, for this, too, must be carefully thinned; not so 
much, however, as the interior, as before observed, for 
on all that freely presents itself to the light 1 depend for 
my principal crop. It is well here to observe, however, 
that in the event of very late and severe frosts, and 
when the Gooseberries are just coming into berry, I have 
sometimes known the chief of the crop in the interior of 
the bush. I may here at once offer an opinion as to the 
average distance at which the young shoots should be 
left; but, as kinds differ so much as to mode of growth, 
a few preliminary observations will be necessary. Some of 
the huge “ show berries” produce foliage of an enormous 
size, as, also, much longer and stouter footstalks to the 
leaves. Many of our best dessert berries, such as the 
Early Green Hairy, the Pitmaston Green-Gage, the Small 
Early Yellow, and the Champagne, are just the reverse— 
small, round, and compact leaves on the smallest amount 
of footstalk. Need I inform the reader here that on 
the shading character of the foliage should depend 
the distances at which the shoots should stand apart? I 
Supposing, then, in order to assist those who have J 
indistinct ideas on this subject, that a bush in question 
has abundance of young shoots to thin, that it is a 
very large kind, and that the object is the largest crop 
of the largest berries, six inches I should consider an 
average distance; but if required for exhibition, I 
suppose our Gooseberry fanciers would thin them to at 
least nine inches. But be the kind one of those very 
small dessert sorts before alluded to, and three to four 
inches may suffice. As for the intermediates, which 
will, indeed, comprise by far the most numerous and 
most useful class, I should give five inches as the most 
useful on an average. In thinning out it is necessary 
to prune close to the main branch, unless it is a very 
lean tree, and requires to be excited to make wood; this, 
however, argues previous mismanagement or an ungenial 
soil. If the bushes be not pruned .close the sure con¬ 
sequence is a prolusion of stem-shoots in the interior, 
which will not only give the workman a deal of trouble 
in the ensuing year, but must detract from the general 
powers of the bush. 
We come now to the shortening process, which will 
complete the pruner’s labours for the present. If I 
were required to lay down a rule for shortening, it 
should be this:—Prune away all that you think the 
bush cannot consistently sustain in its present position 
without drooping on its fellow shoots. There are many 
reasons, however, why we should occasionally deviate 
from this rule, bending to circumstances too important 
to be slighted. 1 have before observed that the young 
shoots of Gooseberries dip, or form curves of very 
different character; this is one reason why shortening 
should differ. Another may be found in the fact that 
the extreme points of some shoots are very imperfect, 
whether through blight, unripeness, or leanness. Here, 
then, is a reason for removing at least the defective 
portion. As an average guide to the inexperienced I 
may, however, say, remove something near one fourth 
part of the whole length of young spray. 
The bushes are now pruned; but are the operator’s 
labours entirely over ? I answer, No! Have we forgotten 
that sad pest of the Gooseberry, the “caterpillar?” As this 
pest in its transformation is understood to take to the 
soil during the winter, I advise those who have time 
to pursue the old practice of burying the surface-soil 
around the bushes. This is done by opening a trench 
around the bushes at about two feet distance, and 
paring all the surface-soil over the roots of the bushes 
into the trench, removing about three inches. This 
must be stamped down; and here an opportunity occurs 
of introducing some mauurial matters, as also of covering 
the surface of the roots thus robbed with a surface¬ 
dressing of any kind, according to the needs of the 
bushes. 
Before quitting the subject of Gooseberry dressing, 
which is, doubtless, better accomplished in the begin¬ 
ning of November than at auy other time, for a double if 
not a triple reason, I may here point to a practice 
which, although somewhat at variance with established 
principles, is an expedient worthy of a moment’s con¬ 
sideration by those who have suffered much from the 
depredations of insect enemies, the frost, &c. It 
consists simply in leaving an extra quantity of young 
spray in the bushes, in order to provide against con¬ 
tingencies. Those who do so, however, must lay their 
account with confusion in the bushes, unless they wait 
on them the moment the crop is secured. The attention ; 
requisite will consist, of course, in thinning out super¬ 
fluous shoots, and, doubtless, in preferring to remove 
the barren ones. 
R. Eruington. 
