ON SOME ODD BERRIES 



The berries are produced in enormous quan- 

 tities. A mass of blueberries in fruiting time may 

 seem to spread a blue carpet throughout cleared 

 woodlands and pastures. And as to the cran- 

 berry, I recall that in my father's meadow where 

 these plants grew, I used to see the men rake the 

 berries off the vines instead of picking them by 

 hand, so profusely were they clustered. 



A very interesting feature of the blueberry and 

 cranberry pastures, which I observed even as a 

 boy, was the great variation, sometimes within 

 the same square rod of ground, not only in the 

 size of the berries but in their shape and quality. 



From the same patch, some berries would be 

 sweet and highly flavored, others insipid and al- 

 most flavorless. But individual patches as a rule 

 appeared to be developed from one original seed- 

 ling which had suckered out in various directions 

 just at the surface of the ground, the trailing 

 branches rooting wherever they touched the earth. 



Individual groups of plants, sprung thus from 

 one seedling, would usually show the same quali- 

 ties of fruit. 



On my last visit to New England I selected 

 from the old blueberry grounds some of the most 

 productive plants, and transplanted them to the 

 experiment farms at Sebastopol. 



It has often been stated that the blueberry 



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