146 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



are removed by a process known as 

 "turfing," which carries away all the 

 native vegetation, and the naked peat is 

 smoothed and covered with a few inches 

 of clean sand. In this the cranberry 

 plants are set. The provision of ponds 

 or reservoirs to permit the rapid flooding 

 of the bog completes the initial equip- 

 ment. Such treatment of land is ex- 

 pensive when well done, costing perhaps 

 $400 an acre. But a first-class cranberry 

 bog in full bearing is often valued at 

 $1,000 an acre, and each acre may be 

 expected to produce a gross revenue of 

 $300 per year, sometimes twice that 

 amount. 



A bog thus prepared promises to be an 

 ideal situation for the swamp blueberry. 

 Whether the profits would warrant the 

 expenditure of so much money remains 

 to be seen ; but the expense may be re- 

 duced to a minimum by cutting out the 

 turfing, sanding, and reservoir building, 

 the blueberry plants being merely set in 

 holes dug in the bog, after drainage, at 

 intervals of about 8 feet each way. 



Another sort of situation that gives 

 experimental promise is a sandy, well- 

 drained, but permanently moist upland 

 possessing a distinctly acid soil. The 

 plants should be set in trenches or sepa- 

 rate holes filled with peat to the depth 

 of about a foot. The surface should be 

 well mulched with leaves or clean sand, 

 and a deep mulch of leaves, preferably 

 oak, should be added each year. The 

 excavations should provide ample space 

 for new growth of the roots, not less 

 than a foot each way from the surface 

 of the old root-ball. 



The peat used may be taken from the 

 surface of a bog containing plants of 

 the heather or blueberry family, or it 

 may be an upland peat, such as that de- 

 scribed on page 144. In either case it 

 should be gathered, piled, and rotted for 

 several months before using. 



The soil in which the holes or trenches 

 are made should be such as will give 

 good drainage, the ideal condition of the 

 peat about the roots of the plant during 

 the growing season being one of con- 

 tinued moisture, but with all the free 



water draining away readily so that 

 thorough aeration of the mass of peat 

 is assured. 



To secure a stock of blueberry plants, 

 the simplest method is to transplant wild 

 bushes in early spring, before the buds 

 have begun to push. The roots usually 

 lie within the upper 6 inches of the soil. 

 A disk of this root and soil mat as large 

 as practicable should be taken up with 

 the bush. 



If the experimenter has a greenhouse 

 at his disposal he can raise seedlings, 

 which will be ready for field-planting in 

 the spring of their second year. 



Seedling bushes are unsatisfactory in 

 one respect. They are not exactly like 

 the parent. The seedlings from a large- 

 berried bush do not all bear large berries. 

 Selected forms of special merit have 

 been propagated by budding and by 

 grafting, just as our highly developed 

 varieties of apples are perpetuated; but 

 in the blueberry the stock is continually 

 sending up new shoots from points below 

 the graft. As blueberry culture develops 

 it will undoubtedly become the practice 

 to propagate the best varieties by layer- 

 ing or by cuttings, as has already been 

 done, for by these methods the whole 

 plant body, including the roots, is of the 

 variety desired, and alien shoots can 

 never be produced. 



BLUEBERRY BUSHES LJVE MANY YEARS 



As to the time required for a blue- 

 berry seedling or cutting to come into 

 profitable bearing, experience cannot yet 

 give" a definite answer. They should 

 bear a few berries the second and third 

 years. It is believed they will bear 

 profitable crops, under proper culture, in 

 5 to 10 years. They ought to remain in 

 bearing for a long time. In some in- 

 stances wild bushes undoubtedly live, in 

 favorable situations, for 50 to 100 years. 

 They are enabled to reach such an 

 age by continual rejuvenescence through 

 their habit of sending up new stems 

 from the root to replace old and dying 

 ones. Those who are curious to know 

 how large an old blueberry bush may 

 become should read Thoreau's descrip- 



