Read it through once

Remembering that it is very often the young juicy shoots that are sought after, it is quite easy to see why the young Rose suckers and shoots from the base of the stem fairly bristle with long and short prickles. These latter are generally straight, not curved like those of the long arching branches which are supposed to hook themselves on the branches of the surrounding trees. The young light-coloured branches of the cultivated Gooseberry are flexible, and hang over in such a way as to make it difficult for an animal to reach the bark: a cow or sheep, if it wished to eat these branches, would begin at the hanging tip and make a sort of upward tearing jerk while its tongue gathered the branch into its mouth. If one copies this with the hand it is easy to see how the length and arrangement of the prickles and the flexible nature of the spray would make such a proceeding on the cow's part most uncomfortable.