July, ipip 



f 



BETTER FRUIT 



Experimenting to Improve Huckleberries 



FOR several years past Mr. F. V. Co- 

 ville, of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and Miss Elizabeth 

 C. White, of New Lisbon, New Jersey, 

 have been cultivating blueberries, also 

 generally known as huckleberries, and 

 have been working to produce new and 

 better varieties. To get new varieties 

 they find the very best wild bushes and 

 then cross-breed these wild plants. The 

 seeds resulting from the cross-breeding 

 grow into all sorts of new varieties, 

 just as seedling apples are seldom like 

 the tree they came from. Many of 

 these new varieties of blueberries are 

 poorer than their parents, but about 

 one in a thousand turns out to be much 

 better than either parent and makes a 

 promising new variety. 



About ten years ago the Department 

 of Agriculture published Mr. Coville's 

 first work on blueberry culture. His 

 most surprising discovery was that 

 blueberries cannot live in a well- 

 balanced fertile soil. They require a 

 sour or acid soil and are actually killed 

 by the application of fertilizer, which 

 would be the best possible food for the 

 ordinary plants. Some years ago a 

 wild blueberry plant was found in Mas- 

 sachusetts with berries more than 

 three-quarters of an inch in diameter, 

 but it was killed by people who did not 

 understand its proper care by being 

 fertilized. 



Since 1911 Miss "White has been asso- 

 ciated with Mr. Coville in these investi- 

 gations, he in the government green- 

 houses at Washington working out the 

 scientific problems and originating new 

 varieties by cross-breeding, and she at 

 New Lisbon, New Jersey, raising these 

 new varieties and the best wild plants 

 that could be found. Mr. Coville and 

 Miss White are now trying to find a 

 number of wild plants to use for this 

 work. They already have a few plants 

 that have berries three-quarters of an 

 inch through, and hope to produce 

 hybrid berries an inch in diameter. 

 They want more unusually fine wild 

 plants, and will pay fifty dollars for 

 especially fine plants with very large 

 berries. 



But it is not only the size of the 

 berry that counts, and they are willing 

 to pay smaller prices for plants that 

 have many berries of slightly smaller 

 size if these berries are of unusually 

 fine flavor. Some bushes bear much 

 more heavily than others. On some 

 bushes the berries stick so tight that 

 when they are picked a piece of the 

 stem pulls off with the berries, or the 



NOW is the time to send to 



Milton Nursery Company 



MILTON, OREGON 



FOR THEIR 1919 CATALOG. 



FULL LINE OF NURSERY STOCK. 



"CmuinaMS* and Quality" 



berry is torn and the juice leaks out. 

 On other plants the berries come off the 

 stems just right. Berries from some 

 bushes spoil soon after they are picked, 

 while others will keep for a week. 

 Some berries are black and others of a 

 beautiful light blue color. There are 

 doubtless thousands of bushes in the 

 country with berries three-quarters of 

 an inch or more in diameter, and many 

 other bushes with berries just a little 

 smaller but of unusually fine quality, 

 but it is only by having people on the 



Page 17 



watch for them that these fine bushes 

 can be discovered. 



The fine varieties developed by cross- 

 breeding will be distributed by the 

 Department of Agriculture to persons 

 who have learned enough about culti- 

 vating wild blueberries to show they 

 can handle the new varieties with 

 success. 



Persons who are interested in finding 

 such plants should write at once to 

 Miss Elizabeth C. White of New Lisbon, 

 New Jersey. Miss White will send full 

 directions, with measuring gauges, and 

 bottles of formaldehyde for mailing 

 large berries that are discovered. 



!jii:itiiirriiirriiiiiirrii[iiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiriiriiiriiiiniiiitiiiiiiMtiiiitiiiiiiciiniiiiiiiiiiitiiiirriiiiiiiriii iiiiniiitiniiiiMii tMiiiiMiiriiiiiiiMiiiiirniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i itiiiiiii^ 



WE ARE BUYING 



I ROYAL ANNE CHERRIES I 



lOc per Pound 



I DELIVERED | 



I Portland, Oregon, or Vancouver, Washington | 



I Receiving Station Portland : | 



I East Third and East Main Streets | 



I Phones East 6096- B 2819 | 



i WE WILL FURNISH PICKING BOXES | 



OREGON PACKING CO. 



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"Listen!" 



says the Good Judge — 



"And remember it, too." 



The better the quality of your 

 chew, the more you'll enjoy it. 



You'll get more out of your to- 

 bacbo money, too — you'll save 

 part of it for something else. 

 A small chew of this quality 

 tobacco tastes good • — and it 

 lasts and lasts. 



THE REAL TOBACCO CHEW 



put up in two styles 



RIGHT CUT is a short-cut tobacco 



W-B GUT is a long fine-cut tobacco 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



