7 
= 
24 BULLETIN 974, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
ness, productivity, hardiness, season of ripening, resistance to fungous 
diseases, and many other less important characteristics. In making 
the selections, special consideration has been given to the form of 
the bush and its possession of a foliage surface adequate to the nour- 
ishment of a large crop of berries. (Pl. XXYV.) 
CONCLUSION. 
The introduction of the blueberry into agriculture has a much more 
profound ‘significance than the mere addition of one more agricul- 
tural industry to those already in existence. Blueberries thrive best 
in soils so acid as to be considered worthless for ordinary agricul- 
tural purposes. Blueberry cultivation, therefore, not only promises 
to add to the general welfare through the utilization of land almost 
valueless otherwise, but it offers a profitable industry to individual 
landowners in certain districts in which general agricultural condi- 
tions are especially hard and unpromising, and it suggests the pos- 
sibility of the further utilization of such lands by means of other 
crops adapted to acid conditions.‘ 
8 For a discussion of the principles of acid-soil agriculture in districts in which the 
cost of lime is prohibitory, consult “‘ The Agricultural Utilization of Acid Lands by Means 
of Acid-Tolerant Crops,” United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 6, 1913. 
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