122 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION". I9OI. 



inches of loam between the plants, to prevent heaving, is the only 

 protection required. The following spring, or two years from 

 seed, they may be planted out permanently. 



Mr. Dawson has sown seed from September to January and, 

 while most of it grew the first season, some delayed until the 

 second year and then came up well. Seed that is kept until dry 

 and then sown, even in autumn and kept in heat all winter, will 

 seldom germinate until the second year. 



Xotes from Maine: At the Maine Experiment Station the 

 writer has grown several hundreds of seedlings and. while in 

 general following the method suggested by Mr. Dawson, has not 

 found the extreme attention to details absolutely essential. Our 

 practice has been to wash the seed from the pulp soon after har- 

 vesting, put it in cloth sacks and stratify in moist sand until early 

 the following spring, allowing it to freeze in the meantime. 

 Seed pans with liberal provision for drainage, are then filled 

 with potting soil, to which is added a considerable portion of leaf 

 mold, and the seed is sown as before described. Partly from 

 force of circumstances, and partly from design, the seedlings 

 were not given the best of care : but after being handled once 

 were, late in the summer, transferred to the cold frame where 

 they were simply covered with litter during the winter. The 

 following spring they were transplanted into beds, shaded until 

 established, and made a good growth during the summer 

 Naturally, however, the better care will produce larger plants 

 and, where practicable, should be followed. 



The low blueberry (V. Pennsyhanicumj will usually fruit in 

 from three to four years from seed, but V . corymbosum requires 

 four to six years. 



CULTIVATION. 



Within the past quarter of a century various spasmodic 

 attempts have been made at the cultivation of the b 1 ueberry ; 

 though probably, as long as the fields and mountain slopes yield 

 such an abundant natural supply as at present, this section of 

 the genus Yaccinium will not receive the attention, in the way 

 of cultivation and improvement, that its importance deserves 

 In the wild state the fruit is certainly more worthy of notice 

 than was the blackberrv, the raspberry or the currant. 



