DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 21 



plant send up new shoots, all of the same ngt\ to form a wholly new 

 and symmetrical top. With lowbush hybrids it has been found di>- 

 sirable at Whitesbog to remove each j^ear, in late July or early 

 August, immediateh' after the picking season, all the stems more 

 than 1 year old which have not made vigorous new twig growth 

 during the season. Under such treatment the bushes yield a good 

 crop of berries every year. Farther north, where the growing sea- 

 son is shorter, such pruning should be done in late autumn or very 

 early spring. 



It has long been known that the occasional burning of lowbush 

 blueberry areas increases the yield of fruit. In the blueberry can- 

 ning districts of Maine this has led to the development of a system 

 of burning the blueberry barrens once in three years. In the summer 

 following the burning the plants do not fruit, but they send up from 

 the ground an enormous number of vigorous unbranched big-leaved 

 stems. Late in the season fruit buds are formed in abundance on 

 the upper part of these stems, and in the second summer after the 

 burning the plants fruit heavily. They are likely also to yield fairly 

 well the third simimer, but after that they usually become unproduc- 

 tive. The burning should be done in the dormdnt season when the 

 plants have dropped their leaves and the roots are fully stored with 

 starch and other reserve foods. From these stored materials are 

 formed the vigorous sprouts of the following spring. If an area 

 is burned in late spring or in summer, after the stored food mate- 

 rials have been used up and before the storage for the folloAving year 

 has taken place, the plants will be seriously weakened. The best 

 time for burning is in early spring, before the buds have begi.m to 

 push. A day should be selected when the upper layers of dead leaves 

 are dry enough to carry a fire and the underlying turf of upland 

 peat is still wet. For if the fire burns so deeply as to consume the 

 layer of peat, from which the plants derive the principal part of their 

 nourishment, their later growth and their fruiting vigor will be 

 seriously impaired. The beneficial effect of burning a blueberry area 

 has led to the idea that wood ashes are a good fertilizer for blue- 

 berries. Experiments have shown, however, that one of the most 

 effective ways to kill a blueberry plant is to give the soil an applica- 

 tion of wood ashes sufficient to neutralize its acidity. When a blue- 

 berry area is properly burned the laj^er of ashes is very thin, quite 

 insufficient to neutralize the acidity of the underlying peat turf, and 

 therefin'c harmless, probably indeed under these conditions beneficial. 

 The chief benefits from burning are two, both quite distinct, however, 

 from the fertilizing effect. Burning tends to keep down tree growth 

 and other competing vegetation, and it prunes the blueberry bushes. 

 Burning is by far the least expensive and most effective method 

 known for pruning lowbush blueberries. The procedure is espe- 



