Huckleberries or Blueberries 367 



from rotting oak leaves. Oak leaves alone, stacked and 

 rotted for a time will serve. An interesting point brought 

 out is that some leaves, especially maple, rot so quickly 

 that within a year they pass the acid stage and become 

 alkaline. They are then unsuitable and even fatal to the 

 young plants. Oak leaves may reach the same condition 

 in time if no fresh material is added, but decay more slowly. 



Propagation in general 



The difficulty of propagation has been one of the 

 chief hindrances to more general cultivation of these 

 fruits. Plants may be grown from seeds but this is 

 not advised. The process is somewhat troublesome, 

 and the results uncertain. Even when the seeds are 

 taken from large fruit only, many of the resulting plants 

 may bear inferior fruit. Budding and grafting may be 

 used, but have little to recommend them, except in ex- 

 perimental work, because young shoots are thrown up 

 from the roots. Four different methods of propagation 

 are described by Coville, in " Bulletin 334," above cited. 

 Each has proved successful, but no one has proved uni- 

 formly best under all conditions. The methods are termed 

 "stumping," "tubering," winter cuttings and root- 

 cuttings. They will be briefly described, but for more de- 

 tailed directions the reader is referred to the above bulletin. 



Stumping. This is considered the easiest method. At 

 any time from late fall to early spring, all or part of the 

 stems of a plant are cut off close to the ground. A frame 

 is placed around the stump and filled with a mixture of 2 

 to 4 parts of sand, to 1 of peat, covering the stumps 2 to 

 3 inches deep. This must be kept moist during summer. 



