Success with Small Fruits

by Edward Payson Roe

The enemies and diseases of the currant will be treated in a later chapter.

CHAPTER XXVII

GOOSEBERRIES

I have treated the currant very fully, not only because it is the more popular fruit in this country, but also because the greater part of my suggestions under that heading applies equally to this branch of the Ribes tribe. Possessing the same general characteristics, it should be treated on the same principles that were seen to be applicable to the currant. It flourishes best in the same cool exposures, and is the better for partial shade. Even in the south of England the more tender-skinned varieties often scald in the sun. However, I would recommend the shade of a fence or a northern hillside, rather than overhanging branches of trees. A rich soil, especially one that is deep and moist but not wet, is equally requisite, and the rigorous annual pruning is even more essential. As the wood becomes old and black, it should be cut out altogether. Fruit buds and spurs are produced on wood two or more years old, and cutting back causes these, but they must not be allowed to become too crowded. To no fruit are air and light more essential.

We have in this country two very distinct classes of gooseberries-the first of foreign origin, and the second consisting of our native species. Gray thus describes Ribes Grossularia, garden or English gooseberry: "Cultivated from Europe for the well-known fruit; thorny and prickly, with small, obtuse, three to five lobed leaves, green flowers, one to three on short pedicels, bell-shaped calyx, and large berry."

This native of northern Europe and the forests of the British Islands has been developed into the superb varieties which have been famous so long in England, but which we are able to grow with very partial success. It remembers its birthplace even more strongly than the currant, and the almost invariable mildew of our gardens is the sign of its homesickness. The cool, moist climate of England just suits it, and it is the pride of the gardens of Lancashire to surpass the world in the development of large specimens. Mr. Downing writes:

"We are indebted to the Lancashire weavers, who seem to have taken it up as a hobby, for nearly all the surprisingly large sorts of modern date. Their annual shows exhibit this fruit in its greatest perfection, and a gooseberry book is published in Manchester every year, giving a list of all the prize sorts, etc."

The extraordinary pains taken is suggested by the following quotation from the "Encyclopaedia of Gardening":

"To effect this increased size, every stimulant is applied that their ingenuity can suggest. They not only annually manure the soil richly, but also surround the plants with trenches of manure for the extremities of the roots to strike into, and form round the stem of each plant a basin, to be mulched, or manured, or watered, as may become necessary. When a root has extended too far from the stem, it is uncovered, and all the strongest leaders are shortened back nearly one-half of their length, and covered with fresh, marly loam, well manured. The effect of this pruning is to increase the number of fibres and spongioles, which form rapidly on the shortened roots, and strike out in all directions among the fresh, newly stirred loam, in search of nutriment."

This is carrying culture to an extreme rarely, if ever, seen in America. The annual referred to above recorded one hundred and fifty-five gooseberry exhibitions in 1863.