THE RAISING OF BLUEBERRY SEEDLINGS. 51 



A METHOD OF POT CULTURE. 



(20) Seeds ok the swamp blueberry 80\va' in august from fresh berries 

 germinate in about five weeks. 



The experiments in the raising of blueberry seedlings have covered 

 such a great diversity of soil mixtures, methods of potting, manner 

 of watering, amount of shade, and day and night temperatures that 

 an account of all of them is out of the question. The more impor- 

 tant results of these experiments may be presented, however, in an 

 account of the seedlings of 1008, the latest that have been grown 

 for an entire year, with allusions to the experiments of other years 

 whenever additionally useful. The parent plant of the seedlings of 

 1908 is described on page 80. 



The method followed in germinating the seed w-as that developed 

 by Mr. George W. Oliver, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in 190:2. 

 All other experimenters, apparently, have considered it necessary 

 to keep the seeds dornuint by stratificatii)n or some equivalent means, 

 until late winter or early spring and then to give them the warmth 

 necessar}^ for germination. By Mr. (Oliver's method, however, the 

 seeds are sown in August, soon after the maturity of the berries; they 

 begin to germinate in about five weeks, and by proper handling in 

 the greenhouse they are robust plants by the beginning of summer 

 instead of tiny seedlings. 



Pursuing this method the detailed operations Avere as follows: 

 The berries (PI. VI, fig. 1) when fully matured and slightly fer- 

 mented were mashed to a pulp and rubbed thoroughly under water. 

 The juice and floating pulp Avere washed awa}', and the heavy seeds, 

 Avhich sank to the bottom, were taken out and their superficial mois- 

 ture dried off by exposure to the air for a few hours. When thus 

 ju-epared and placed in a closed bottle blueberry seeds Avill retain 

 their vitality for ssveral weeks, probably for several months. 



From the 2 quarts of berries were secured 12.5 grams of dry seeds. 

 The seeds numbered about 9,000 per gram, of which about thi-ee- 

 fourths were small and contained no embryos. About 11 grams were 

 used to raise seedlings, computed to contain about 2r).000 germinable' 

 seeds. It furnished an abundant amount for seeding four ordinarv 

 gardener's flats, and from these over 1,000 seedlings were actually 

 transplanted and as many more might easily have been utilized. 



The mature seeds (PI. VI. fig. 2) ^ire roughly orbicular to nar- 

 rowly oblong in outline, strongly flattened, with a deeply pitted seed 

 coat. They vary in lengtli from 0.04 to O.OC) of an inch (1 to 1.5 

 unn.). 



The seeds were sown in shalloAv wooden flats 10 by 34 by 3 inches, 

 inside measurement. After crocks had been placed over the drain- 

 age holes the bottom was covered to a depth of about an inch with 



193 



