Photograph from U. S. Department of Agriculture ■ 



THE GREENHOUSE BLUEBERRY OE I916 



This cluster contains the largest blueberry produced up to the present time. It measured 

 seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. A bud from the largest-berried plant thus far known 

 was inserted on a very vigorous seedling stock, was forced to rapid and luxuriant growth in 

 the greenhouse, and finally was made to produce these berries. They are shown in their 

 natural size. 



huckleberries, and none of these has been 

 used in the breeding experiments.* 



PROPAGATED BY CUTTINGS 



From the many thousand hybrids test- 

 ing and to be tested in the New Jersey 



* In the southern United States and in the 

 Middle West blueberries are not ordinarily 

 distinguished from huckleberries, but in New 

 England the distinction is very clearly drawn. 

 The name huckleberry is there restricted to 

 plants of the genus Gaylussacia, the berries of 

 which contain 10 large seeds with bony cover- 

 ings like minute peach pits, which crackle be- 

 tween the teeth. The name blueberry is applied 

 in New England to the various species of the 

 genus Vaccinium, in which the seeds, though 

 numerous, are so small that they are not no- 

 ticeable when the berries are eaten. It is prob- 

 able that the comparatively low estimation in 

 which this fruit is held in the South is largely 

 due to the lack of a distinctive popular name 

 and the consequent confusion of tbe delicious 

 small-seeded southern Vacciniums with the 

 coarse large-seeded Gaylussacias. It is the cul- 

 ture of the small-seeded blueberries only, as 

 distinguished from the large-seeded huckle- 

 berries, that is here advocated. 



trial plantation a few bushes bearing the 

 best-flavored, largest, and handsomest 

 berries will be selected for further prop- 

 agation. Like selected varieties of apples, 

 selected blueberries cannot be propagated 

 successfully from the seed. They do not 

 come true in that way. They do come 

 true, however, when budded or grafted; 

 but, as new shoots are continually spring- 

 ing up below the graft, these methods 

 also cannot be applied satisfactorily to the 

 blueberry. 



As early as 1909 it was appreciated 

 that propagation must be effected by cut- 

 tings or some similar method, if a par- 

 ticular selected bush was to be perpetu- 

 ated and increased on a commercial scale. 

 The various methods followed by garden- 

 ers in the rooting of cuttings of ordinary 

 plants were faithfully tried, but without 

 success. Thousands of cuttings that 

 started well drooped and died in the cut- 

 ting beds. 



It became evident that new methods 



539 



