4 BULLETIN 9/74, U. S. DEPAETMEISTT OE AGEICULTUEE, 



the snow, bore no fruit on the exposed tops in the following summer, 

 while the sides and bases of the same bushes, which had been cov- 

 ered with snow, yielded the usual abundance of berries. The dead 

 fruit buds still remained on the winterkilled twig tips at the ex- 

 posed tops of the bushes. 



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 ber- 

 ries of which contain 10 large seeds with bony coverings like minute 

 peach pits, which crackle between the teeth. The name blueberry 

 is applied in New England to the various species of the genus Vac- 

 cinium, in which the seeds, though numerous, are so small that they 

 are barely 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 Vac- 

 ciniums 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. 



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 plants, produce small 

 berries as often as large ones. The cultivator should begin with the 

 purchase of a few plants of selected hybrid varieties or by the trans- 

 planting of the best wild bushes, selected when in fruit for the size, 

 color, flavor, and earliness of the berry and the vigor and productive- 

 ness of the bush. These he should propagate by layering, by division, 

 and by cuttings. Through a combination of these methods, a valuable 

 old plant can often be multiplied by several hundred at one propaga- 

 tion, the fruit of the progeny retaining all the characteristics of the 

 parent. 



In making selections among wild bushes it is an excellent plan to 

 preserve for future reference about a dozen of the largest berries in 



