THE GARDENING WORLD 
243 
April 6, 
1907. 
Fruit Growing 
6.—GOOSEBERRIES. FOR Amateurs. 
In some of the. northern countries, 
specially in Lancashire and Cheshire, 
lose fruits are grown extensively not 
nlv for home consumption and market 
tirposes but also for exhibition. 
A well-grown, fair-sized bush will yield 
weral quarts of fine berries, and when 
c2. 
/. A bad cutting; it is the unripe end of 
a shoot of late growth. 
2. A good cutting, but not ready for in¬ 
sertion. 
the latter are sold at a few pence per 
quart, a really grand sum total is ac¬ 
quired from a small plot of ground, as a 
single bush does not cover many square 
feet. 
For small gardens Gooseberries are 
valuable; also for growing between rows 
of fruit trees such as Apples, Pears, 
Plums and Cherries. 
The Best Soil. — A deep, friable loam 
inclining to sandy is the best to plant the 
bushes in, and where such obtains the 
quarter devoted to this fruit should be 
3 . 
3. A mature cutting made ready for in¬ 
sertion; A, buds left to grow; B, buds 
picked out near the base. 
level. But if the soil is naturally clayey, 
you should select a sloping piece of 
ground, or failing such a position, put in 
some drains to ensure the soil being 
fairly dry during the winter. Although 
the trees thrive well in a moist soil in 
summer time, they would not live long, 
and prove remunerative in a water-logged 
soil. There is a vast difference between 
a good holding loam and one which is 
constantly saturated. No amount o'f 
care in planting, training, feeding, and 
pruning will avail the grower much if the 
trees are always partially water-logged at 
the roots. We have only to look at 
forest and other trees growing in swampy 
ground to enable us to understand the 
effect of a too moist rooting medium 
upon them. Gooseberry bushes suffer 
similarly. The latter would soon be¬ 
come stunted, produce weakly shoots, 
and fewer of these as the seasons pass. 
Preparing the Soil. —When once a 
voung bush is planted you will not be 
able to dig deeply around its roots with¬ 
out seriously injuring them. Therefore 
you would act wisely if you deeply dig or 
4. Shows how to insert cuttings; A, sand 
in the trench; B, soil to fill up the trench 
again. • 
trench all the soil before putting in a 
single plant. It is not necessary to add 
a considerable amount of manure at the 
time of digging and preparing the soil, 
as the roots may receive amp.e nourish¬ 
ment every year by giving surface dress¬ 
ings of manure. 
Propagation. — The best mode is by 
the insertion of cuttings. The lowest 
branches are easily layered, but the 
young plants procured in this way are 
generally one-sided and much care is 
necessary in the training afterwards to 
get them of good shape. 
Suitable cuttings are those selected 
from shoots of the current year s growth ; 
very young, late-grown shoots are too 
sappy (see Fig ri; they will not strike 
freelv, are victims of severe frosts, and 
also "of long spells of dry weather in the 
spring and early summer following their 
insertion in the previous autumn. A 
long shoot (about 16 inches to 20 inches 
long) is the best, for this reason: You 
will be able to cut off the unripe end, the 
very hard portion at the base, and then 
have a cutting about 1 foot long. (See 
Fig. 2.) 
Having cut off a few inches from the 
end, or point, retain three or four buds 
intact, but pick out with the point of a 
knife all the buds below; especially must 
5. Pruning a one-year-old tree; A, A, A, 
cutting o'jf the shoots just above a bud which 
points upwards. 
you be sure that there are not any buds 
left on that portion of the cutting which 
is buried in the soil ; and it is advisable 
to have a few inches of clear stem im¬ 
mediately above the surface of the soil. 
(See Fig. 3.) 
The cuttings being duly prepared, see 
to their insertion without any delay. A 
border with a west or north-west aspect is 
an ideal one if it is open and not over¬ 
shadowed by tall trees. It is not neces¬ 
sary to dig the soil, simply level it and 
then form trenches with a clean spade 
about 4 inches deep ; one side of the 
trench should be perpendicular, or nearly 
so, and against this side you must place 
the cuttings 6 inches apart. Scatter 
very coarse sand to a depth of at least 
1 inch in the bottom ctf the trench. Dip 
the cuttings in water and then in some 
dry sand before putting them in the 
trench. (See Fig. 4.) Make them firm 
in position bv pressing some soil to their 
base with the hands and afterwards fill 
up the trench with the spade, treading 
down the soil firmly. The rows of cut- 
tines should be 16 inches apart, and the 
cuttings put in about the middle of No¬ 
vember. Severe frosts will affect the 
soil around the cuttings, lifting the latter 
and loosening them when the thaw comes. 
But vou must not neglect to tread down 
the loosened soil immediately the frost 
is quite gone. Beyond doing this there 
will not be anv further attention needed 
until the spring, when you should put on 
a layer 2 inches thick of well-rotted 
manure and apply water if the weather 
proves dr}-. 
No attempt should be made to disturb 
the rooting cuttings until the following 
autumn— one venr after their insertion. 
Planting Young Bushes. -First plant 
one row about 5 feet apart, and then 
