SOS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



izatlou of naturally acid lands that occupy exten- 

 sive areas in the Eastern United States, to produce 

 the delicious blueberry or some other crop that 

 thrives in acid soils. 



The Department has found by experiment how 

 blueberries differ from ordinary plants in their 

 methods of nutrition and in their soil requirements, 

 and by means of this knowledge it has worked out 

 a system of pit culture under which these plants at- 

 tain a development beyond all previous expecta- 

 tions. The failure heretofore of attempts to culti- 

 vate blueberries commercially as a market fruit 

 appears to be due to a misunderstandins of the soil 

 requirements of the plants, which, as tliese experi- 

 ments show, are radically dilTerent from those of 

 our common cultivated plants. 



The market would gladly pay a higher price for 

 cultivated blueberries of superior quality. A mark- 

 ed distinction should be made in market quotations 

 between the large plump blueberry (genus Vaccin- 

 iuvi). whose seeds are so small as to be almost un- 

 noticed when they are being eaten, and the huckle- 

 berry (genus Gayliissacia) in which the seed is sur- 

 rounded by a bony covering like a minute peach- 

 pit, which crackles between the teeth. The failure 

 to make this distinction in nomenclature, and the 

 unsightly condition in which careless handling oft- 

 en presents the berries to the buyer, are the cause 

 of much of the failure in southern markets to ap- 

 ))reciate the blueberry at its real value. As the 

 blueberry withstands the rough treatment incident 

 to shipment so much better than most other ber- 

 ries, with proper handling it should always reach 

 the market in flrst-class condition, whether shipped 

 from North Carolina to Boston in early June, or 

 Nova Scotia to Washington in late September, 

 making the blueberry season cover a period of 

 nearly four months. 



To those desiring to experiment with field culture 

 of the swamp blueberry, whether with wild plants, 

 seedlings, or plants grown from cuttings, two meth- 

 ods of treatment are suggested, both deduced from 

 the experiments already made. The first method, 

 suited to upland soils, is to set the plants in trench- 

 es or separate holes in well-rotted peat at least a 

 foot in depth, and mulch the surface well, either 

 with leaves or with clean sand. The excavations 

 should provide ample space for new growth of the 

 roots, and the peat used may be either of the bog or 

 the upland type, and should have been rotted for 

 several months before using. The soil should af- 

 ford good drainage, the ideal condition of the peat 

 about the roots of the plant being one of continued 

 moisture during the growing season, but with all 

 the free water draining readily, so that thorough 

 aer.ation of the mass of peat is assured. 



The second method of field culture suggested is to 

 set the plants in a peat-bog after the bog has been 

 drained, turfed, and deeply mulked with sand, just 

 as for cranberry culture, except that no special pro- 

 vision need be made for rapid Hooding of the bog 

 for winter, and the ground water of the bog might 

 be kept a little lower than is usual with cranber- 

 ries. Before beginning the work, theseexperiments 

 should be carefully studied by any one proiiosing to 

 undertake the culture of blueberries. 



Washington, D. C, Oct. 18, 1910. 



Our readers, especially the older ones, v^'ill 

 remember the attempt made to grow blue- 

 berries in the garden years ago, and the 

 general failure. With the above sugges- 

 tions, however, I have no doubt we shall 

 succeed. Now, in regard to Childs' won- 

 derberry, or improved stinberry, as he calls 

 it: Last spring when I came from Florida I 

 spent 20 cents for a jiackage of the improved 

 sunberry, so extravagantly lauded during 

 the past season. I received only an exceed- 

 ingly small pinch of very small seed; and 

 with the best care I could give them in the 

 greenhouse I secured only six plants. Five 

 of them are now pretty well loaded with 

 berries. The berries are very small — not 

 much larger than a good-sized elderberry. 

 Not enough have ripened yet to make a pie 

 or sauce. And, by the \,ay, if I am correct 

 they are advertised to ripen in sixty days. 



Mine have had twice sixty days, and very 

 few have ripened at this date, Oct. 21. The 

 garden huckleberry* that I wrote about a 

 year ago lias berries more than four times 

 as large, and which ripen very much quick- 

 er. These do make delicious pies, especial- 

 ly if mixed in with sour apples; and with 

 my present experience I should much pre- 

 fer them to the sunberry. When the latter 

 gets dead ripe, however, they may prove 

 more worthy of all that has 'been claimed 

 for them. The garden huckleberry is much 

 easier to gather on account of its larger size, 

 and growing in great clusters. By the way, 

 Childs lays much emphasis on his berries 

 always growing true to name. Among my 

 six plants there is one with different foliage 

 and altogether a different habit. It is un- 

 like the garden huckleberry or sunberry; 

 and, by the way, the sunberry, although 

 plainly a solanum, or nightshade, is quite a 

 little different in foliage, as well as fruit, 

 from the garden huckleberry; but this sport 

 I have been speaking of is different from 

 either; and, strange to tell, it is not annoy- 

 ed at all by the flea beetle. Both of the 

 other plants would have been eaten up in 

 no time had I not kept the flea bettles off by 

 hand picking, for the flea beetle seems to 

 prefer this nightshade to any other plant 

 grown. While at our experiment station a 

 few days ago one of the directors told me 

 the wond3rberry would be sure to introduce 

 flea beetles on our premises in great abun- 

 dance , even if we had never had them be- 

 fore. When our plants were small I had to 

 keep them covered with cheese-cloth or they 

 would have been eaten up in one day. 



Here is something further in regard to the 

 wonderberry: 



I am one who invested in John I.ewis Childs" won- 

 derberry last spring, 1909. I gave it the best place 

 in my garden; gave it good care all summer; and 

 instead of having a bush I had a few small plants. 

 I then replanted some in pots, and at the present 

 time have five watery-stem plants six inches high 

 that show no signs of making good, to say nothing 

 about the berries that were promised in a feir weefcs. 

 The only 'wonder " I see is that he dare advertise 

 it again this year. 



Auburn, N. Y., March 26. C. G. IIayden. 



SOWED IN FALL, COMES UP NEXT SPRING. 



Last .summer I got some sweet clover from the A. 

 I. Root Co., and sowed it in August. We had a 

 drouth soon after, which continued till fall. What 

 came up could not grow much, as it was too dry, 

 and all heaved out during the winter. When spring 

 came the ground was bare, fn April I had an acci- 

 dent, and could not work all summer nor oversee 

 the work; so I ordered a man to plow the ground 

 where the sweet clover had been sown. After he 

 had it plowed he told me he would not have plowed 

 that ground, as it was all lull of clover, and would 

 have made a pretty good crop. It seems to me I 

 learned something by that, fn your booklet on 

 sweet clover we read that it grows one season, bears 

 seed the second season, and, if not harvested, will 

 reseed it.self and grow next season. Now, 1 do not 

 know just what time the seed ripens and falls to the 

 ground; but it seems to me that. If we knew the 

 time, we would know when to sow sweet clover, 1 

 had thought that, in my case, the seed germinated 

 and perished in the drouth; but now f believe that 

 but very little of it germinated last fall, but did so 

 in the spring, and grew. 



Doylestown, Pa., Aug. 8. A. C. Gross. 



*The garden huckleberry is Vs inch in diameter, 

 the wonderberry ab lut Va, an J hardly a quartei- as 

 much in weight. 



