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18 BULLETIN 974, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
4 feet apart in the row, with the rows 8 feet apart. (Pl. XXIII.) 
This spacing permits machine cultivation in one direction. When 
the bushes begin to crowd each other, every second plant in the row 
will need to be removed. If the plants are set originally at 4 by 4 
feet machine cultivation will be impracticable after the first year or 
two, and the branches of the bushes are likely to begin to interlock 
after five or six years. 
For lowbush hybrids it seems’ probable, from the experience at 
Whitesbog, that a spacing of 6 by 3 feet will give the bushes adequate 
room for many years. If the bushes ultimately begin to interlace 
in the rows the removal of every second bush would then leave them 
at intervals of 6 by 6 feet. 
This removal of filler bushes will furnish a large quantity of 
propagation material, which can be rooted by the various methods 
described in this bulletin and used for the extension of the plantation. 
When blueberry culture is to be tried in a sandy or gravelly soil 
deficient in peat or peatlike matter, the plants should be set in sepa- 
rate holes or trenches about 12 inches deep in a mixture of two to 
four parts of peat or halt-rotted oak leaves to one part of clean sand. 
The excavations should be wide enough to provide ample space for 
new growth of the roots, not less than a foot each way from the old 
root ball. In small plantings, if the materials for the mixture are 
easily available in quantity, an 8-inch bed of it may be laid down 
over the whole surface of the ground, and if a planting is to be tried 
on a soil wholly unsuited to the blueberry, especially a rich garden 
soil or a heavy soil affording poor drainage, the area may first be 
covered with a 2-inch layer of soft-coal cinders, to keep earthworms 
from bringing up the underlying soil, next a 6-inch layer of sand, for 
drainage, and finally the 8-inch bed of peat and sand mixture. 
Wherever used, the peat and sand mixture should be thoroughly 
manipulated, so as to give it a uniform texture, before the plants are 
set out in it, for in a soil in which layers of peat alternate with layers 
of sand the capillary connection of the two is usually imperfect, 
and a plant rooted in the peat may suffer severely from drought, al- 
though the neighboring sand still has water to spare. For a similar 
reason it is important that when the plant is first set out the peat 
and sand mixture shall be very tightly pressed and packed about all 
sides of the old root ball. if 
To insure full vigor of growth the ground between the bushes 
must be kept free from all other vegetation. On rocky uplands 
or in situations deficient in peat a continuous mulch of oak leaves, — 
when it is practicable to procure them, will help toward this end, as 
well as keep the soil in the necessary acid condition. It is more ~ 
economical, however, to choose such a location for the plantation — 
