DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 23 



With beginners in blueberry culture every gradation in accom- 

 plishment may be expected, from the great success indicated above 

 to complete failure because of wrong soil, bad location, or poor 

 management. 



The heaviest charge against the industry is the cost of producing 

 rooted plants of selected varieties. At the present time plants of the 

 best varieties can not be purchased in acre quantities. The grower 

 must do his own propagating from a few plants. The propagation 

 is sufficiently difficult to demand unusual skill, and it requires con- 

 stant and painstaking attention. 



If the land to be used bears timber and brush the clearing is 

 expensive. 



After a plantation is established its maintenance is relatively 

 inexpensive. The cost of cultivation is rather less than that of the 

 staple cultivated crops. The principal charge is for the picking of 

 the berries. At Whitesbog 6 cents a cjuart has been paid for the 

 last few years. A good picker in an ordinary da}^ picks about a 

 bushel. An exceptionally skillful picker, with unusually favorable 

 bushes, has picked 100 quarts, or more than 3 bushels, in a day. For 

 shipment to the market in crates cultivated blueberries should be 

 picked by hand, never with a " rake " or " scoop," such as is used 

 when blueberries are carted direct to commercial canneries. 



HYBRID BLUEBERRIES. 



Blueberry breeding has now been carried on for 10 j^ears, with the 

 result that instead of berries the size of peas, like the ordinary wild 

 blueberry, we now have hybrids producing berries the size of Con- 

 cord grapes. (Pis. XXVII to XXIX.) A few plants out of 

 the 18,000 hybrids that have been fruited at Whitesbog are of the 

 size shown in these illustrations, with berries three-fourths of an 

 inch in diameter. A very few have borne berries even larger, a 

 little more than four-fifths of an inch in diameter, and in the green- 

 house a diameter of seven-eighths of an inch has been reached. In 

 the great majority of the hyl)rids, however, the berries are inter- 

 mediate in size between ordinary wild ones and the selected hybrids. 

 (PI. XXVI.) All such small and intermediate hybrids are rejected. 

 Propagation material placed in the hands of nurserymen for com- 

 mercial propagation is taken from the selected hybrids only. 



The unselected hybrid berries vary in color from light blue to dark 

 blue and sometimes shining black, and an occasional bush bears red 

 berries, or even white ones. 



The variation of the blueberry hybrids in other resi)ects is also 

 very marked, the plants offering an almost endless ()pi)()rtunity for 

 selection with reference to acidity, sweetness, flavor, juiciness, firm- 



