118 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



rooting, and many plants are injured by an excessive loss of water 

 before they have had time to make connection with the water 

 supply of the surrounding soil through the development of new 

 roots. The danger of such injury is greatest in the case of plants 

 transplanted from pots. The old root ball sends up most of its 

 water to the leaves, and in consequence, being at first, as a rule, 

 in imperfect capillary contact with the new outside soil, the root 

 ball commonly contracts slightly. The contraction is often suf- 

 ficient to put the roots at the surface of the root ball perma- 

 nently out of contact with the surrounding soil, and the plant may 

 continue to suffer severely from drought, although the soil outside 

 the root ball contains plenty of moisture. 



An early autumn field planting has furnished a remarkably suc- 

 cessful means of avoiding this trouble with potted plants. At this 

 season the excessive heat of summer is over, the plants are in full 

 and vigorous leaf, and, being taken from pots, carry their whole 

 root system with them. The formation of new roots begins at once 

 and proceeds with great activity until the leaves are shed, at the 

 approach of winter. In the spring, when new leaf growth begins, 

 the plants are already well rooted in the soil. They pass through 

 the early hot period without injury and develop remarkable size 

 and vigor by autumn. 



In preparing for a field plantation one precaution of special im- 

 portance must not be overlooked. For the production of a crop of 

 fruit under field conditions, insects are required to carry pollen 

 from one flower to another. The honeybee works little on blue- 

 berry flowers. Her tongue is so short that she can not easily reach 

 the nectar. The flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees, 

 whose tongues are long, and by some of the solitary wild bees that 

 are small enough to crawl through the narrow opening of the corolla. 

 When blueberry flowers are pollinated with pollen from their own 

 bush the berries are fewer, smaller, and later in maturing than when 

 the pollen comes from another bush. Some bushes are almost 

 completely sterile to th^ir own pollen. The pollen of a plant 

 grown from a cutting is likewise unsatisfactory for the pollination 

 of the parent plant or of other plants grown from cuttings of it. 

 It is important, therefore, that a plantation should not be made 

 up wholly from cuttings from one bush. Two stocks should be 



