DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 3 



IMPORTANCE OF SUPERIOR VARIETIES. 



In the southern United States and in the Middle West blueberries 

 are not ordinarily distinguished from huckleberries, but in New 

 England the distinction is very clearly drawn. The name huckle- 

 berry is there restricted to plants of the genus Gaylussacia, the 

 berries of which contain 10 large seeds with bony coverings like 

 minute peach pits, which crackle between the teeth. The name blue- 

 berry is applied in New England to the various species of the genus 

 Vaccinium, in which the seeds, though numerous, are so small that 

 they are not noticeable when the berries are eaten. It is probable 

 that the comparatively low estimation in which this fruit is held 

 in the South is largely due to the lack of a distinctive popular name 

 and the consequent confusion of the delicious small-seeded southern 

 Vacciniums with the coarse large-seeded Gaylussacias. It is the 

 culture of the small-seeded blueberries only, as distinguished from 

 the large-seeded huckleberries, that is here advocated. 



From the market standpoint, the features of superiority in a blue- 

 berry are sweetness and excellence of flavor; large size; light-blue 

 color, due to the presence of a dense bloom over the dark-purple or 

 almost black skin ; " dryness," or freedom from superficial moisture, 

 especially the fermenting juice of broken berries; and plumpness, 

 that is, freedom from the withered or wrinkled appearance that the 

 berries begin to acquire several days after picking. Large berries 

 cost less to pick than small ones and bring a higher price. A berry 

 eleven- sixteenths of an inch in diameter has already been produced 

 under field culture, and others of still larger size are to be expected. 



Although blueberry plantations may be formed by the transplant- 

 ing of unselected wild bushes or by the growing of chance seedlings, 

 neither of these courses is advocated, because neither would result in 

 the production of fruit of an especially superior quality. Seedling 

 plants, even from the largest berried wild parents, produce small 

 berries as often as large ones. Until nurserymen are prepared to 

 furnish plants asexually propagated from superior stocks, the culti- 

 vator should begin by the transplanting of the best wild bushes, 

 selected when in fruit for the size, color, flavor, and earliness of the 

 berry and the vigor and productiveness of the bush. These he should 

 propagate by layering and by cuttings until his plantation is com- 

 pleted. Through a combination of these methods, a valuable old 

 plant can be multiplied by several hundred at one propagation, the 

 fruit of the progeny retaining all the characteristics of the parent. 



PROPAGATION. 



While grafting and especially budding are useful in experimental 

 work, neither method is suitable for commercial plantations, because 

 blueberry bushes are continually sending up new and undesirable 

 shoots from the stock. The best season for budding for experimental 



