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MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Table I. — Yield and receipts from a plantation of blueberries near Elkhart, 

 Ind., 1910 to 1915, inclusive. 



The annual expenses for weeding, cultivation, and irrigation were 

 about $20 per acre. The cost of picking was 5 cents a quart. The 

 general cost of maintenance of the equipment was about $2 per acre 

 per year, the crates and boxes being used repeatedly. The compu- 

 tation includes an estimated annual charge of $12 per acre for 

 interest, $2 for taxes, and $4 for depreciation or sinking fund. 



It must be borne in mind that these figures are based on the yields 

 from wild bushes transplanted without selection as to individual 

 productiveness or the size of the berries. With bushes propagated 

 from selected varieties, the yield should be greater and the berries 

 much larger, this greater size probably effecting a reduction in the 

 cost of picking and certainly an increase in the selling price. 



Only a beginning has been made in the improvement of the blue- 

 berry. In a series of experiments involving the selection of superior 

 wild strains, the growing of hybrids, and the forcing of choice 

 varieties to quick fruiting by budding them on strong seedling 

 stocks, berries seven-eighths of an inch in diameter have already 

 been produced in the greenhouse. The yield and profits from such 

 bushes in field plantations are not yet known. 



