From the currant we pass on naturally to the gooseberry, for in origin and requirements it is very similar.  Both belong to the Ribes family of plants, and they are to be cultivated on the same general principles.  What I have written in regard to partial shade, cool, sheltered localities, rich, heavy soils, good culture, and especially rigorous pruning, applies with even greater force to this fruit, especially if we endeavor to raise the foreign varieties, in cultivating this fruit it is even more important than was true of raspberries that the reader should distinguish between the native and foreign species.  The latter are so inclined to mildew in almost every locality that there is rarely any certainty of satisfactory fruit.  The same evil pursues the seedling children of the foreign sorts, and I have never seen a hybrid or cross between the English and native species that was with any certainty free from a brown disfiguring rust wholly or partially enveloping the berries.  Here and there the fruit in some gardens will escape year after year; again, on places not far away, the blighting mildew is sure to appear before the berries are fully grown.  Nevertheless, the foreign varieties are so fine that it is well to give them a fair trial.  The three kinds which appear best adapted to our climate are Crown Bob, Roaring Lion, and Whitesmith.  A new large variety, named Industry, is now being introduced, and if half of what is claimed for it is true, it is worth a place in all gardens.

In order to be certain of clean, fair gooseberries every year, we must turn to our native species, which has already given us several good varieties.  The Downing is the largest and best, and the Houghton the hardiest, most productive and easily raised.  When we remember the superb fruit which English gardeners have developed from wild kinds inferior to ours, we can well understand that the true American gooseberries are yet to be developed.  In my work “Success with Small Fruits” those who are interested in this fruit will find much fuller treatment than is warranted in the present essay.

Not only do currants and gooseberries require similar treatment and cultivation, but they also have a common enemy that must be vigilantly guarded against, or the bushes will be defoliated in many localities almost before its existence is known.  After an absence of a few days I have found some of my bushes stripped of every leaf.  When this happens, the fruit is comparatively worthless.  Foliage is as necessary to a plant as are lungs to a man.  It is not essential that I should go into the natural history of the currant worm and moth.  Having once seen the yellowish-green caterpillars at their destructive work, the reader’s thoughts will not revert to the science of entomology, but will at once become bloody and implacable.  I hasten to suggest the means of rescue and vengeance.  The moment these worms appear, be on your guard, for they usually spread like fire in stubble.  Procure