10(5 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



eleven-sixteenths of an inch in diameter has already been produced 

 under field culture, and others of still larger size are to be expected. 

 Although blueberry plantations may be formed by the transplant- 

 ing of unselected wild bushes or by the growing of chance seedlings, 

 neither of these courses is advocated, because neither would result in 

 the production of fruit of an especially superior quality. Seedling 

 plants, even from the largest berried wild parents, produce small 

 berries as often as large ones. Until nurserymen are prepared to 

 furnish plants asexually propagated from superior stocks, the culti- 

 vator should begin by the transplanting of the best wild bushes, 

 selected when in fruit for the size, color, flavor, and earliness of the 

 berry and the vigor and productiveness of the bush. These he should 

 propagate by layering and by cuttings until his plantation is com- 

 pleted. Through a combination of these methods, a valuable old 

 plant can be multiplied by several hundred at one propagation, the 

 fruit of the progeny retaining all the characteristics of the parent. 



Propagation. 



"While grafting and especially budding are useful in experimental 

 work, neither method is suitable for commercial plantations, because 

 blueberry bushes are continually sending up new and undesirable 

 shoots from the stock. The best season for budding for experimental 

 purposes is from the middle of July to the end of August. The ordi- 

 nary method of shield budding, with dry and unwaxed raffia wrap- 

 ping, has proved the most successful of all the methods tried. The 

 best wood on which to bud is the lower portion of vigorous basal 

 ■ shoots of the season, especially those from plants that were cut to 

 the stump in the preceding winter. On such shoots the bark can 

 be lifted with ease much later in the season than on older stems. 

 Special care must be taken that the raffia wrapping does not become 

 wet and fermentation ensue between the raw surfaces of bud and 

 stock, in the first three weeks. By that time, in normal cases, the 

 bud wood has united with the stock, and if the budded stem has in- 

 creased in diameter sufficiently to cause pronounced choking by the 

 raffia the wrapping should be removed. If choking does not occur 

 the wrapping may be allowed to remain until spring, when the stem 



