BLUEBERRY INSECTS IN MAINE. 25 1 



which is meant the first year's growth of bushes) but the second 

 year the bushes bear very heavily, and somewhat less heavily in 

 succeeding years, the reason being that the fruit is produced 

 on the new wood developed during the preceding year. All the 

 stems and leaves are destroyed in the burning and only the 

 tangled mass of roots remains, so that there is a very vigorous 

 growth during the first year, but decidedly less the second year 

 as so much energy must be expended in developing the berries. 

 The fires are set on a clear morning in the spring and sweep 

 across the barrens all day but are checked by the heavy dews m 

 the evening. Mr. Bird and Mr. Cobb in their thesis on the 

 blueberry presented to the faculty of the University of Maine 

 in 1913 state that no free element except carbon is left when 

 the bushes are burned, for the vegetable oils are converted 

 into carbonates, sulphates, and phosphates, or into metallic 

 oxides, all of which are soluble in the soil water. Nitrogen is 

 lost, but is supposed to be returned by a symbiotic fungus which 

 lives on the roots. 



Not only does the burning restore the fertility but it tends to 

 keep in check the trees and bushes which would otherwise 

 spring up on the plains. Three species of blueberries occur on 

 the barrens, Vaccinium pennsylvanicum Lam. (including var. 

 nigrum Wood), V. canadense Kalm, and V. vacillans Kalm, but 

 the first two very decidedly predominate. As V. canadense 

 ripens about lo days later than V. pennsylvanicum, the berry 

 season is fairly long. Locally the mountain-cranberry Vac- 

 cinium Vitis-Idaea L. var minus Lodd forms a dense cover over 

 the ground, especially along the sides of little ravines. Huckle- 

 berries Gaylussacia haccata (Wang.) C. Koch and chokeberries, 

 Pyrus melanocarpa (Michx.) Willd. are in places very plentiful, 

 while the other more characteristic plants associated with the 

 blueberries are the sheep-laurel, Kalmia angustifolia L., sweet- 

 fern, Myrica asplenifolia L, and young gray birches, Betula 

 populifolia Marsh. Less characteristic but common on some 

 parts of the barrens are the alder, Alnus incana (L.) Moench, 

 meadow-sweet, Spiraea latifolia Borkh, and several species of 

 Aster and Solidago. 



Blueberries are widely distributed elsewhere throughout the 

 state but they grow only in pastures and waste land, and there 

 is no real blueberry industry outside of Washington County 



