DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 7 



4. Keep the box at a temperature of 55° to 65° F., or as near those limits 

 as practicable. A temperature of 70° or over is likely to ruin the cuttings. 



5. In order to avoid excessive temperatures, do not allow direct sunlight 

 upon the glass, either keeping the box by north light or keeping it shaded, as 

 hy a white cloth or paper cover suspended several inches above the glass, or 

 in a shaded greenhouse. 



G. Keep the air inside the box saturated with moisture. This condition will 

 be evidenced by the condensation of the moisture on the under side of the glass 

 during the cooler part of the day or whenever a cold wind blows against the 

 glass. 



7. Watering should be as infrequent as practicable, only sufficient to keep 

 the sand moist but well aerated and the atmosphere in the box saturated. If 

 the glass fits tightly, a second watering may not be needed for several weeks. 



8. Within a few weeks new growth will begin to appear above the sand. 

 (See PI. IV, fig. 1.) When the shoots have reached a length proportionate to 

 their vigor, commonly 1 to 3 inches, their further growth is self-terminated by 

 the death of the tip. After the leaves have reached their full size and acquired 

 the dark-green color of maturity the time has come for the development of 

 roots. 



9. When the first shoot has reached this rooting stage a half-inch layer of 

 finely sifted rotted peat, 2 parts, and clean sand, 1 part, should be placed on 

 the surface of the cutting bed and moistened well with water. A time-saving 

 and perhaps desirable modification of this treatment is to use this mixture of 

 peat and sand as the original covering of the cuttings, described in paragraph 3. 



10. The new growth, which if it had originated above the sand would be like 

 an ordinary shoot, was transformed in working its way through the sand and 

 became a scaly, erect rootstock, which on reaching the surface of the sand con- 

 tinued its development into a leafy shoot. During the spring and early summer, 

 roots form in abundance on the lower or rootstock portion of these shoots. 

 (See PI. IV, fig. 2.) 



- 11. After a shoot is well rooted it commonly, though not invariably, makes 

 secondary twig growth the same season, usually from a bud in the axil of the 

 uppermost leaf. If the rooting of the shoot has not already been ascertained 

 by direct examination, the making of such secondary growth is good evidence 

 that rooting has actually taken place. 



12. When a shoot is well rooted, with roots 1 to 2 inches in length, it is ready 

 to be potted. (See PI. V.) If the shoot has not already disconnected itself 

 from the dead cutting, it should be carefully severed with a sharp knife. In 

 the process of tubering, # the behavior of the cuttings is essentially identical with 

 that of real tubers, like those of the potato. The original cutting dies, but the 

 sprouts that arose from it root at the base and form independent plants. 



13. The rooted shoots should be potted in clean 2-inch earthenware pots in 

 the standard blueberry-soil mixture already described. ( See PI. VI. ) 



14. The pots should be bedded in moist sand up to the rim in a glass-covered 

 frame or box, well lighted but protected from direct sunlight, and slightly 

 ventilated but with a saturated or nearly saturated atmosphere. 



15. In order to secure rapid growth, the rooted plants should be gradually 

 accustomed to a well-ventilated atmosphere and then to half sunlight, this 

 adjustment extending over a period of about three to four weeks. 



16. If preferred, the rooted shoots may remain in the original cutting bed 

 until the following spring, the cutting bed being exposed during the winter to 

 freezing temperatures, but mulched with oak leaves, and the plants may then 

 be transferred, with their whole root mat intact, to a peat and sand nurserv bed 

 at a spacing of about a foot each way. 



