18 BULLETIN 914:, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGEJCULTUEE. 



4 feet apart in the row, with the rows 8 feet apart. (PI. XXIII.) 

 This spacing permits machine cultivation in one direction. When 

 the bushes begin to crowd each other, every second plant in the row 

 will need to be removed. If the plants are set originally at 4 by 4 

 feet machine cultivation will be impracticable after the first year or 

 two, and the branches of the bushes are likely to begin to interlock 

 after five or six years. 



For lowbush hybrids it seems probable, from the experience at 

 Whitesbog, that a spacing of 6 by 3 feet will give the bushes adequate 

 room for many years. If the bushes ultimately begin to interlace 

 in the rows the removal of every second bush would then leave them 

 at intervals of 6 by 6 feet. 



This removal of filler bushes will furnish a large quantity of 

 propagation material, which can be rooted by the various methods 

 described in this bulletin and used for the extension of the plantation. 



When blueberry culture is to be tried in a sandy or gravelly soil 

 deficient in peat or peatlike matter, the plants should be set in sepa- 

 rate holes or trenches about 12 inches deep in a mixture of two to 

 four parts of peat or ha If -rotted oak leaves to one part of clean sand. 

 The excavations should be wide enough to provide ample space for 

 new growth of the roots, not less than a foot each way from the old 

 root ball. In small plantings, if the materials for the. mixture are 

 easily available in quantity, an 8-inch bed of it may be laid down 

 over the whole surface of the ground, and if a planting is to be tried 

 on a soil wholly unsuited to the blueberry, especially a rich garden 

 soil or a heavy soil affording poor drainage, the area may first be 

 covered with a 2-inch layer of soft-coal cinders, to keep earthworms 

 from bringing up the underlying soil, next a 6-inch layer of sand, for 

 drainage, and finally the 8-inch bed of peat and sand mixture. 

 Wherever used, the peat and sand mixture should be thoroughly 

 manipulated, so as to give it a uniform texture, before the plants are 

 set out in it, for in a soil in which layers of peat alternate with layers 

 of sand the capillary connection of the two is usually imperfect, 

 and a plant rooted in the peat may suffer severely from drought, al- 

 though the neighboring sand still has water to spare. For a similar 

 reason it is important that when the plant is first set out the peat 

 and sand mixture shall be very tightly pressed and packed about all 

 sides of the old root ball. 



To insure full vigor of growth the ground between the bushes 

 must be kept free from all other vegetation. On rocky uplands 

 or in situations deficient in peat a continuous mulch of oak leaves, 

 when it is practicable to procure them, will help toward this end, as 

 well as keep the soil in the necessary acid condition. It is more 

 economical, however, to choose such a location for the plantation 



