DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. 5 
a tightly stoppered wide-mouthed bottle containing a mixture of 1 
part of formalin, or 40 per cent formaldehyde, to 15 parts of water. 
Each bottle should contain berries from only a single bush or, in the 
case of a plant that spreads by the root, from a single patch. Care 
should be taken not to rub the delicate “bloom” from the berries. A 
small twig bearing two or three leaves, from the same plant from 
which the berries were taken, should also be placed in the bottle. The 
Department of Agriculture would be glad to receive such samples 
and identify them for the sender. Some of the bushes thus located 
might prove to be of value in the blueberry breeding work of the 
department. 
Great interest has developed recently in Florida on the subject of 
blueberry culture. Extravagant and misleading statements have been 
published and thousands of ordinary wild bushes have been sold at 
high prices, the purchasers being led to believe that the plants were 
of specially selected or adapted varieties. One company, located 
near Tampa, published as the frontispiece of a blueberry advertising 
pamphlet a natural-size illustration of a quart box of one of the 
United States Department of Agriculture selected hybrids, without 
designating it as such. The reader of the pamphlet would naturally 
believe that the bushes the firm was selling would produce such 
berries as were shown in the illustration. The real success of a single 
blueberry plantation near Crestview, in northwestern Florida, set 
with selected plants from the near-by woods, is chiefly responsible 
for the present wave of blueberry exploitation in that State. The 
‘best advice that can be given at present to those desiring to experi- 
ment with blueberry culture in Florida is to make certain that any 
plants they buy are as represented by the seller, to be sure that alleged 
improved varieties are not in reality ordinary wild blueberries, per- 
haps inferior to wild bushes that the purchaser might find in his 
own neighborhood by careful search. The selected hybrids described 
in this bulletin are of northern parentage and probably will not 
thrive in Florida because Florida winters are not sufficiently cold 
to give these plants the chilling they require in winter. The United 
States Department of Agriculture has already begun the breeding of 
improved blueberries from species native in Florida, but it greatly 
desires better southern breeding stocks than it now possesses. Those 
interested in the advancement of blueberry culture in Florida are 
especially urged to make selections among their wild blueberries in 
accordance with the general directions given in the two preceding 
paragraphs. 
4For an account of the experiments that led to this conclusion, see “ The Influence 
of Cold in Stimulating the Growth of Plants,’ published in the Journal of Agricultural 
Research for October 15, 1920, vol. 20, pp. 151 to 160, with 16 plates. 
