-7- 



and easy to propagate and prune, but doesn't sprout so freely from the 

 base as could be desired. It may be a suitable replacement for Pioneer. 



Jersey, which ripens with Rubel, looks very promising. The bush is 

 very vigorous, upright, productive, and easy to propagate and prune, but 

 does not sprout from the base so freely as is desirable. The berries are 

 long sterimed, making for easy picking, large sized, very attractive, and 

 keep and ship v/ell. The flavor is excellent if the berries are v;ell ■ 

 ripened, otherviise they are sour. Since the berries turn blue a couple 

 of days before they are ripe, it is very difficult at times to keep pick- 

 ers from picking the underripe, very sour fruit. 



Pemberton is a very promising nev/ variety which ripens with Rubel. 

 The bush is upright, very vigorous, productive and winter hardy. The fruit 

 is unusually large, attractive, and fine flavored. It is easy to prune 

 and is said to be easy to propagate. It's worst faults are a large v/atery 

 scar where the stem separates and the tendency for a little piece of skin 

 to tear off v;ith the stem. This leaves a place for molds to enter and 

 start decay if the berries are not used within a fevif days, 



Atlantic and Burlington, tvio other nev/ varieties, have not yet been 

 fruited at the Massachusetts Experim'^nt Station, but information available 

 indicates they are v/orthy of trial, 



Dixi, although introduced several years ago, has not been tried ex- 

 tensively enough yet to warrant any very definite opinions about it. The 

 berries are very large, attractive, fine flavored, and ripen late. It is 

 worthy of trial, 



— J. 3. Bailey 



IvIAIIURE FOR CULTIVATED BLUEBERRIES 



Dr. F. V. Coville, the father of blueberry culture, in his early 

 greenhouse experiments \vith blueberries found that manure was so very toxic, 

 in fact killed some of the plants, that he never carried the 'ixperiments 

 into the fi'jld. Ilis repeated warnings against the use of manure were heeded 

 for 20 or more years. Then a few grov/ers of blueberries because they wore 

 more venturesome, or hadn't heard of Dr. Coville 's v/arning, tried manure in 

 the field with apparently good results. For this reason, an experiment was 

 started at Amherst in 1941 to compare three manures, cow, horse, and poultry, 

 on cultivated blueberries. 



Horse manure v/as applied at the rate of 10 tons per acre, the 

 first year, and 20 tons per acre the next two. The other two manures v/ere 

 applied at such rates as to give approximately the same amount of nitrogen 

 as in the horse manure. 



It is noteworthy that the blueberry plants have thrived and pro.» 

 duced heavily under this treatment with no signs of the toxicity reported 

 by Dr. Coville. The choice of a manure seems to be immaterial as all gave 

 equally good results. 



— J. S. Bailey 



