THE BLUEBERRY IN MAINE. I/I 



flow" will overcome all of these. If grown in the garden ( i ) 

 they must be on the north side of a board fence, or in the shade 

 of trees, and the ground must be mulched with leaves, or ever- 

 :green boughs; (2) let the seed get fully ripe and drop, then 

 sow in a moist shady place; (3) graft small bushes at the sur- 

 face of the ground and cover most of tlic cion with moist earth. 

 T have succeeded in all of the above." 



IV. D. Huntington, Lynn, Mass.: "I have been cultivating 

 blueberries in a small way for home use, and as an interesting 

 experiment, for ten or twelve years, and am fully convinced of 

 the possibilities of the venture commercially. The variety I 

 "have succeeded best with is V. Corymhosum, carefully selected. 

 My ground is a rocky, poor, upland soil, but the berries take on 

 an improved look and size, and the bushes are loaded down with 

 three or four times as much fruit as in the pastures or swamps, 

 and are 25 or 30 per cent larger. I should set them six feet 

 -apart each way and give them clean culture. The plants are 

 greatly benefited by a mulch of strawy manure placed around 

 them in autumn and will not be injured by a large quantity. 



"I have some seedlings in bearing, but they are not as good 

 as the parent plant and I have not sufficient room to grow large 

 ■quantities of them to get one rare plant. Have had many 

 berries ^2 to 9-16 inches in diameter and a few 5/^. I would not 

 think a plant that did not have a few berries ^ inch in diameter, 

 worth cultivating. Some of my plants have borne 12 quart 

 "boxes of berries in a season. These sold to our near neighbors 

 at 20 cents per box and they always ask for more." 



Benj. G. Smith, Cambridge, Mass.: "In an amateur way I 

 have experimented with higlibush blueberries for about twenty 

 years. I secured some of the largest and finest high-bush blue- 

 berries I have ever seen and planted the seeds, a few of which 

 vegetated the first year and more the second. I gave them per- 

 sonal attention and in three or four years they fruited and in a 

 year or two more abundantly." 



Mr. Smith found, as might be expected, that the seedlings 

 were quite variable, and few of them were equal in size to the 

 fruits from which the seed was taken. This variable character 

 is, hoAvever, one of the hopeful indications for the future of this 

 fruit. 



