TAMING THE WILD BLUEBERRY 



145 



BLUEBERRIES GROWN IN A GREENHOUSE (NATURAL SIZE) 



reasonably be expected of a blueberry 

 area under good management. It is of 

 some significance, however, that accord- 

 ing to the reported yield the bushes in 

 the Elkhart bog, which are set 6 by 6 

 feet, average about a quart of berries 

 each in a good year, while in almost any 

 good blueberry pasture in New England 

 exceptional wild bushes may be found 

 that produce from 4 to 6 quarts of ber- 

 ries each. It is to the selection and 

 propagation of such productive plants 

 with large, attractive, and fine-flavored 

 berries that experimental culture should 

 devote itself. The propagation of bushes 

 with berries over half an inch in diame- 

 ter is already actually in progress. 



The only fruit the culture of which 

 bears any resemblance to that of the 

 blueberry is the cranberry. The two 

 plants are closely related botanically; 



they both require an acid soil, and they 

 both have a mycorhizal fungus on their 

 roots, essential apparently to their suc- 

 cessful culture. Cranberry-growing is 

 a highly specialized and profitable in- 

 dustry, the development of which has 

 required nearly a century of experimen- 

 tation. It is only within the last few 

 years that any really scientific attention 

 has been paid to cranberry culture, the 

 development of the industry having been 

 accomplished by commercial -growers. 

 Progress in learning to handle the plant 

 has therefore been slow and costly, but 

 highly practical, and cranberry culture 

 has much of experience to offer, by way 

 of suggestion, to blueberry culture. 



In preparing a bog for cranberry- 

 growing the water level is lowered at 

 least a foot below the surface by ditch- 

 ing; then a few inches of the top soil 



