DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 11 



(8) Within a few weeks new growth will begin to appear above the soil. (PI. 

 IX, fig. 1.) When the shoots have reached a length proportionate to their 

 vigor, commonly 1 to 3 inches, their further growth is self-terminated by the 

 death of the tip. After the leaves have reached their full size and acquired 

 the dark-green color of maturity the time has come for the development of 

 roots. 



(9) The new growth, which if it had originated above the bed would be like 

 an ordinary shoot, was transformed in working its way through the soil and 

 became a scaly, erect rootstock, which on reaching the surface of the bed con- 

 tinued its development into a leafy shoot. During the spring and early summer 

 roots form in abundance on the lower or rootstock portion of these shoots. 

 (PI. IX, fig. 2.) 



(10) After a shoot is well rooted it commonly, though not invariably, makes 

 secondary twig growth the same season, usually from a bud in the axil of the 

 uppermost leaf. If the rooting of the shoot has not already been ascertained 

 by direct examination, the making of such secondary growth is good evidence 

 that rooting has actually taken place. 



(11) When a shoot is well rooted, with roots 1 to 2 inches in length, it is 

 ready to be potted. (PI. X.) If the shoot has not already disconnected itself 

 from the dead cutting it should be carefully severed with a sharp knife. In 

 the process of tubering the behavior of the cuttings is essentially identical with 

 that of real tubers, like those of the potato. The original cutting dies, but 

 the sprouts that arose from it root at the base and form independent plants. 



(12) The rooted shoots should be potted in clean 2-inch earthenware pots 

 in the standard blueberry-soil mixture already described. (PI. XI.) 



(13) The pots should be bedded in moist sand up to the rim in a glass- 

 covered frame or box, well lighted but protected from direct sunlight and 

 slightly ventilated but with a saturated or nearly saturated atmosphere. 



(14) To obtain rapid growth, gradually accustom the rooted plants to a 

 well-ventilated atmosphere and then to half sunlight, this adjustment extend- 

 ing over a period of about three or four weeks. 



(15) If preferred, the rooted shoots may remain in the original cutting bed 

 until the following spring, the cutting bed being exposed during the winter to 

 freezing temperatures, but mulched with oak leaves, and the plants may then 

 be transferred, with their whole root mat intact, to a peat and sand nursery 

 bed at a spacing of about a foot each way. 



Where propagating is to be done on a sufficiently large scale, out- 

 door coldframes may be used instead of cutting boxes. At Wliites- 

 bog the process of tubering has been carried on with great success 

 in muslin-shaded coldframes, and the handling of the cuttings, 

 both before and after rooting, has been such simplified. The cut- 

 tings are made in the fall, packed in boxes in loose, moist, clean 

 sphagnum moss or basswood sawdust, and stored during the Avinter 

 in a cool cranberry house at a temperature of about 40° F. As 

 soon as the frost is out of the ground beds of clean sand are laid 

 down in the coldframes, and the cuttings are pressed into the sand 

 until the upper side is level with the surface. The whole is then 

 covered with an inch layer of sifted peat (about two parts) and 

 sand (one part) . At first the frames were completely shaded by clean 



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