HUCKLEBERRY FAMILY 



The Huckleberry family does not differ widely 

 from the Heath family in respect to its leaves or its 

 flowers ; but in respect to its fruit, — bird and beast 

 and man will assert in chorus that the difference is 

 very great. For the huckleberry and the blueberry 

 have ministered to the comfort of the birds and the 

 refreshment of mankind for ages. The obvious differ- 

 ence between the two in popular estimation is that the 

 huckleberry fruit is more " seedy" than that of the 

 blueberry and consequently not so desirable for table 

 use. As Professor Card so admirably explains, this 

 popular opinion is based upon a structural difference 

 in the fruit of the two genera. 



The Vacciniacece seem, so far, to have successfully re- 

 sisted all efforts at domestication. From time to time 

 we read that some one has transferred a few bushes to 

 his garden and that they have done well there ; but 

 oftener we hear and sometimes we see that trans- 

 planted bushes do not do well. It is probable that the 

 untamed spirit of these wild creatures might be broken, 

 were it worth while ; but there is a more excellent 

 way. The farmers have learned this in Michigan and 

 in Maine and possibly elsewhere. The method is very 

 simple — it consists in withdrawing grazing animals 

 from fields where the Vacciniacece are native, permitting 

 the bushes to take undisturbed possession ; and then 

 about once in five years burning the tract. Of course, 

 the first year after the burning there is no crop, but in 

 the second year the crop is enormous. As the demand 

 for the fruit is steady, there seems no reason in the 

 nature of things why careful and systematic treatment 

 of natural blueberry lands should not be profitable. 



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