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TAMING THE WILD BLUEBERRY 113 



best secured in the case of isolated frames by the use of clean white 

 muslin shades. Frames on the north side of a building will also 

 require shade in early morning and late afternoon from March to 

 September. On sunless days all shades should be removed, so that 

 the cuttings will receive as much light as possible. (3) There 

 should be ample space for the circulation of cool air between the 

 frames and the shade. A shade at the height of about 7 feet from 

 the ground not only allows such circulation but makes it easy to 

 work among the frames. (4) The frames should be kept closed 

 until the cuttings are rooted. This closing not only keeps the air 

 saturated with moisture and prevents the drying of the cuttings, 

 but it also tends to maintain a cool ground temperature within the 

 frame. 



When frames are thus located, constructed, and managed, the 

 maximum temperature on sunny days within the frames is often 

 10 degrees lower than the shade temperature outside, and the 

 period of safety for cuttings that are not yet rooted is greatly pro- 

 longed. Low temperatures can be maintained in such coldframes 

 much later in the season than in a greenhouse of the ordinary con- 

 struction, even though the greenhouse is well shaded and well 

 ventilated. 



The use of a greenhouse in which to start the cuttings, followed by 

 the transfer of the cutting boxes to coldframes at the beginning of 

 warm weather, permits an even more prolonged protection of the 

 cuttings than can be secured in either greenhouse or coldframe alone 

 and increases the percentage of rooted plants. 



The directions for rooting winter cuttings of the blueberry by the 

 use of a coldframe are as follows : 



1. Make the cuttings in late winter before the buds have begun to 

 swell. If more convenient, they may be made in late autumn, after the 

 leaves have fallen, laid rather loosely in clean moist sphagnum in a covered 

 but ventilated box or other package, and stored until early spring on ice 

 at a temperature just above freezing or in commercial cold storage at a 

 temperature of about 3.5° F., if such storage is available. 



2. Make the cuttings from wood of the preceding summer's growth, 

 rejecting such portions as bear the large fat flowering buds. The cuttings 

 are to be made from well-matured unbranched twigs or shoots grown in 

 well-lighted situations, and therefore well stored with starch. Excellent 

 wood for cuttings is afforded by the long stout shoots that grow the first 



