ee 
a BULLETIN 974, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the snow, bore no fruit on the exposed tops in the following summer, 
while the sides and bases of the same bushes, which had been cov- 
ered with snow, yielded the usual abundance of berries. The dead 
fruit buds still remained on the winterkilled twig tips at the ex- 
posed tops of the bushes. 
IMPORTANCE OF SUPERIOR VARIETIES. 
In the southern United States and in the Middle West blueberries 
are not ordinarily distinguished from huckleberries, but in New 
England the distinction is very clearly drawn. The name huckle- 
berry is there restricted to plants of the genus Gaylussacia, the ber- 
ries of which contain 10 large seeds with bony coverings like minute 
peach pits, which crackle between the teeth. The name blueberry 
is applied in New England to the various species of the genus Vac- 
cinium, in which the seeds, though numerous, are so small that they 
are barely noticeable when the berries are eaten. It is probable that 
the comparatively low estimation in which this fruit is held in the 
South is largely due to the lack of a distinctive popular name and 
the consequent confusion of the delicious small-seeded southern Vac- 
ciniums with the coarse large-seeded Gaylussacias. It is the culture 
of the small-seeded blueberries only, as distinguished from the large- 
seeded huckleberries, that is here advocated. 
From the market standpoint the features of superiority in a blue- 
berry are sweetness and excellence of flavor; large size; light-blue 
color, due to the presence of a dense bloom over the dark-purple or 
almost black skin; “ dryness,” or freedom from superficial moisture, 
especially the fermenting juice of broken berries; and plumpness— 
that is, freedom from the withered or wrinkled appearance that the 
berries begin to acquire several days after picking. 
Although blueberry plantations may be formed by the transplant- 
ing of unselected wild bushes or by the growing of chance seedlings, 
neither of these courses is advocated, because neither would result in 
the production of fruit of an especially superior quality. Seedling 
plants, even from the largest berried wild plants, produce small 
berries as often as large ones. The cultivator should begin with the 
purchase of a few plants of selected hybrid varieties or by the trans- 
planting of the best wild bushes, selected when in fruit for the size, 
color, flavor, and earliness of the berry and the vigor and productive- 
ness of the bush. These he should propagate by layering, by division, 
and by cuttings. Through a combination of these methods, a valuable 
old plant can often. be multiplied by several hundred at one propaga- 
tion, the fruit of the progeny retaining all the characteristics of the 
parent. SERS 
In making selections among wild bushes it is an excellent plan to 
preserve for future reference about a dozen of the largest berries in 
