•6- 



THE B'lPROVEiuTLNT OF WILD HIGHBUSH BLUSBBRRIES 



There are many acres of wild highbush blueberries in this 

 state where the bushes are yielding much below their capacity because of 

 lack of care. They can be made to double or triple their yield without 

 great expense or labor. 



In 1928 experiments were tried on blueberry' land in Hubbaraston, 

 Royalston, V.'estminster, Ashbumham, and Barro, Massachusetts, to increase 

 the yield of wild bushes. The treatments wore as follows: (1) all lar£,e 

 trees and second grov/th shading the blueberries were removed, (2) the 

 bushes v/ere pruned, (3) fertilizer vms applied. The pruning varied from 

 removing a quarter of the bush to cutting it wholly to the ground. The 

 fertilizers used weroj nitrate of soda, aiTimonium sulfate, urea, calurea, 

 cyanamid, 4-8-4, and nitrophoska. Different combinations of fertilizers 

 and pruning v/ere tried. 



The follov;ing results were observed; 



1, Removal of othor vegetation increased the grovrbh of the blueberry bushes, 



2, Pruning, vihere not excessive, increased grov/th and yield. Removal 



of more than a quarter of tho bush was too severe. Bushes cut to the 

 ground yielded a fev; berries the third year there after but produced 

 no commercial crop till the fourth year, 



3, Fertilization increased the grovrth and yield of the bushes. The 

 increase seemed to be due to nitrogen rather than to any other 

 fertilizer element, 



4, A combination of fertilization and pruning was much better than either 

 alono . 



5, The increase in production on the fertilized plots was due mostly 



to an increase in the number of berries por bush. It vms impossible 

 to obtain satisfactory comparative yield records under the conditions 

 of the expf;riments. The bushes varied in size and number per acre. 

 Although the pickers were assigned to different parts of the field, 

 they picked in the fertilized plots whenever possible, v/ith or v;ithout 

 permission. This is vory good evidence of the better picking found 

 there, 



6, The berries on the fertilized plots tended to be larger, but the size 

 of wild berries varies greatly and cannot bo increased beyond, limits 

 set by inheritance, 



7, Fertilized bushes had' a marked tendency to bear yearly; unfertilized 

 bushes to bear in alternate years, 



8, The berries on the fertilized plots were firmer during dry poriods 

 than those on unfertilized areas. 



