TAMING THE WILD BLUEBERRY 



141 



ready for a period of vigorous stem growth. In the manured 

 plants, however, either no new root growth took place or only 

 a slight amount. The old rootlets turned brown and appeared 

 to be dead or dying. At the end of five weeks the growth of 

 the tops was very slow. About ten days afterward, on a 

 bright, warm day, the lower leaves on three plants withered, 

 and within a few weeks all six of the manured plants were 

 dead. 



Except in acid soils the roots of the blueberry are subject 

 to decay, their whole action indicating that the rotting is caused 

 or aided by injurious bacteria and fungi. In good blueberry 

 soils, however, these organisms are apparently killed or held 

 in check by the acids that exist naturally in such soils. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH TIME 



Although the application of lime to ordinary agricultural 

 crops has usually a marked beneficial influence, the thorough 

 liming of a good blueberry soil was found to have a very in- 

 jurious effect on blueberry plants, similar to heavy manuring. 

 In the course of these experiments with lime a remarkable 

 phenomenon was produced, which, though having no impor- 

 tant bearing on blueberry culture, is of very great significance 

 to agriculture in general. 



From some imperfect early experiments with lime the writer 

 had erroneously concluded that the blueberry was so exceed- 

 ingly sensitive to lime that the slightest admixture of it in the 

 soil would be immediately fatal to a blueberry plant. Later 

 experiments showed that lime was injurious to the blueberry 

 only when in sufficient amount to neutralize the acidity of the 

 soil, one per cent usually being adequate. But, before these 

 later experiments had been made, and while still laboring under 

 an erroneous conception of the supersensitiveness of the blue- 

 berry plant to lime, the writer, desiring 

 to produce fresh examples of this phe- 

 nomenon, placed a very small quantity — 

 a few milligrams — of air-slaked lime on 

 the surface of the soil in each of three 

 2-inch pots containing a small blueberry 

 plant. No effect was produced, either at 

 first or for several weeks. 



A large surface application of carbon- 

 ate of lime was then made, to the same 

 three plants, a gram to each pot, and the 

 lime was washed down with water. The 

 expected collapse did not occur. The 

 limed plants continued to grow as luxu- 

 riantly as their unlimed neighbors. The 

 conclusion was reached that the reason 

 why the growth of the plants had not 

 been affected was because the lime had 



not penetrated sufficiently into the soil. , „. 

 a ft, i i . • • Blueberry seedling m 

 Another and more drastic experiment r j ch gar( j e n soil ^One- 

 was therefore determined upon. half natural size.) 



Blueberry seedling in 

 peat mixture. (One-half 

 natural size.) 



