TAMING THE WILD BLUEBERRY 117 



spring until they are in full leaf, when their flowering is nearly or 

 quite finished and their principal twig growth has ceased. It is im- 

 portant, therefore, in taking up either a wild or a cultivated plant 

 from the open ground that as much as possible of the old root mat 

 be carefully lifted with the plant, for upon this the plants depend 

 for moisture until their new rootlets are formed. 



In the case of mature wild bushes with very large root systems, 

 when it is practicable to secure but a fraction of the root mat, say 

 a disk only 3 or 4 feet in diameter, it is the best procedure to cut all 

 the stems at the time of transplanting to stumps 1 to 2 inches high. 

 The bush will then produce a new and symmetrical top of a size 

 suited to the capacity of the roots. The wood that is removed 

 may be used for cuttings if the plant is sufficiently valuable. 



The stems that make up a bush usually develop fibrous roots on 

 their basal portions beneath the surface of the soil and above the 

 root crown, at which the several stems unite. Such plants can be 

 divided into several when taken up for transplanting. As many as 

 30 plants, each cut to a stump and with its own small but sufficient 

 portion of the root mat, have been secured in this way from a large 

 wild plant. By utilizing the various methods of propagation de- 

 scribed in this publication as many as 600 cuttings of roots, stems, 

 and twigs have been made from a single very large wild bush. 



In resetting plants from which the tops have been removed, the 

 stumps should be made to project about an inch above the surface of 

 the ground. New shoots are formed in spring from such exposed 

 stumps much earlier than from stumps covered with soil and not 

 receiving the warmth of the sun's direct rays. If the plant when 

 reset is made to occupy a moderate depression in the ground, the old 

 stump and the bases of the new stems can afterward be covered 

 with soil and a new root system will finally develop from the new 

 wood. 



When blueberry plants are set out in early spring, before the buds 

 have begun to push, they usually make excellent growth, and for 

 all plants that are pruned to the stump early spring is the best 

 season for transplanting. 



Conditions with unpruned plants, however, are different. Since 

 blueberry plants make no new root growth until late spring, it often 

 happens that a period of hot days intervenes between planting and 



