DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 5 



a tightly stoppered wide-mouthed bottle containing a mixture of 1 

 part of formalin, or 40 per cent formaldehyde, to 15 parts of water. 

 Each bottle should contain berries from only a single bush or, in the 

 case of a plant that spreads by the root, from a single patch. Care 

 should be taken not to rub the delicate " bloom " from the berries. A 

 small twig bearing two or three leaves, from the same plant from 

 which the berries were taken, should also be placed in the bottle. The 

 Department of Agriculture would be glad to receive such samples 

 and identify them for the sender. Some of the bushes thus located 

 might prove to be of value in the blueberry breeding work of* the 

 department. 



Great interest has developed recentlj^ in Florida on the subject of 

 blueberry culture. Extravagant and misleading statements have been 

 published and thousands of ordinary wild bushes have been sold at 

 high prices, the purchasers being led to believe that the plants were 

 of specially selected or adapted varieties. One company, located 

 near Tampa, published as the frontispiece of a blueberry advertising 

 pamphlet a natural-size illustration of a quart box of one of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture selected hybrids, without 

 designating it as such. The reader of the pamphlet would naturally 

 believe that the bushes the firm was selling would produce such 

 berries as were shown in the illustration. The real success of a single 

 blueberry plantation near Crestview, in northwestern Florida, set 

 with selected plants from the near-by woods, is chiefly responsible 

 for the present wave of blueberry exploitation in that State. The 

 best advice that can be given at present to those desiring to experi- 

 ment with blueberry culture in Florida is to make certain that any 

 plants they buy are as represented by the seller, to be sure that alleged 

 improved varieties are not in reality ordinary wild blueberries, per- 

 haps inferior to wild bushes that the purchaser might find in his 

 own neighborhood by careful search. The selected hybrids described 

 in this bulletin are of northern parentage and probabl}^ will not 

 thrive in Florida because Florida winters are not sufficiently cold 

 to give these plants the chilling they require in winter.* The United 

 States Department of Agriculture has already begun the breeding of 

 improved blueberries from species native in Florida, but it greatly 

 desires better southern breeding stocks than it now possesses. Those 

 interested in the advancement of blueberry culture in Florida are 

 especially urged to make selections among their wild blueberries in 

 accordance with the general directions given in the two preceding 

 paragraphs. 



* For an account of the experiments that led to this conclusion, see " The Influencp 

 of Cold in Stimulating the Growth of riants," iniblishcd In the Journal of Agricultural 

 Kescarch for October 15, 1920, vol. 20, pp. 151 to IGO, with 10 plates. 



