weaknesses, such as lack of winter hardiness, susceptibility to the fungus 

 diseases powdery mildew, Microsphaera alni D. C. ex. Wint., and witches' 

 broom, Calyptospora columnaris Kuhn., both of which have given trouble 

 in this progeny, small fruit, soft berries or any serious limitation to con- 

 tinued use of the plant for commercial fruit harvesting. In November, 1956, 

 248 seedlings remained of the original planting. These will be observed in 

 the future to learn more about their hardiness as some have firm berries 

 of exceptionally fine flavors. It was noted in 1957 that one bush of Coville 

 in the planting at Rochester showed symptoms of witches' broom. Thus, it 

 has now become evident that the cultivated parent used in the cross is sus- 

 ceptible to this disease. 



Sebatis was also crossed with Berkeley, Bluecrop, and Earliblue, and 

 U.S.D.A. No. BM22. About 129 seedlings of these crosses have fruited. Seed- 

 lings of Sebatis x Berkeley are not promising, due to small size of the berries, 

 but seedlings having berries of good color, flavor, and firmness have been 

 found among Sebatis x Bluecrop seedlings. Earliblue x Sebatis is an out- 

 standing good cross and one desirable selection has been made from a 

 progeny of only 25 plants. 



East Clarendon No. 1 wild blueberry was also crossed with Earliblue. The 

 seedlings had a distinctive foliage, being rather pubescent and showing red- 

 dish immature leaves similar to the wild parent. Many seedlings bore rather 

 dark colored berries of medium size but rather soft and of insipid flavor. 

 Only one blue-fruited seedling has been selected. 



Early Highbush Blueberries 



The cultivated varieties of blueberry can be grown successfully in southern 

 New Hampshire. Early-ripening kinds are desired, even earlier than Earli- 

 blue. Crosses were made between Earliblue and Bluecrop. This proved an 

 outstandingly good cross with many of the progeny having large fine 

 quality blue fruits. The plants varied in maturity. One selection, NH #4, 

 begins to ripen earlier than Earliblue and seemingly has good horticultural 

 possibilities. Softwood cuttings have rooted readily from this early-ripening 

 selection and it, as well as several other selections from the cross that mature 

 a bit later in the season, will be tested further. About 600 seedlings of Earli- 

 blue X U.S.D.A. No. 11-104 are growing in the field. Excellent flavor predomi- 

 nates in this cross, but berries from many seedlings have a soft texture and 

 rather large moist picking scars. Several fine selections have been made 

 from this cross, despite the fact that 180 bushes have been removed because 

 of a severe leaf spot trouble to which some seedlings of this progeny seem 

 susceptible. 



Other crosses are Earliblue x Jersey and Earliblue x Baker :^1, a selected 

 cultivated highbush from Arrowsic, Maine. While some bushes from these 

 crosses fruited in 1957, they could not be evaluated due to the ravages of 

 wild birds that were exceptionally bad during the dry summer. In all, over 

 6,000 seedlings are being evaluated. New hardy sorts well adapted to New 

 Hampshire may come from this group. 



