DIRECTIONS FOR BLUEBERRY CULTURE. eet} 
fruit abundantly in sandy uplands that are subject to drought, the 
swamp blueberry grows best in soils naturally or artificially sup- 
plied with adequate moisture. 
These, then, are the three fundamental requirements of success- 
ful blueberry culture: (1) An acid soil, especially one composed 
of peat and sand; (2) good drainage and thorough aeration of the 
surface soil; and (3) permanent but moderate soil moisture. Under 
such conditions the beneficial root fungus which is believed to be 
essential to the nutrition of the plant need give the cultivator no 
concern, for even if the necessary fungus were wholly lacking in 
the soil of the new plantation each healthy bush set out in it would 
bring its own supply of soil-inoculation material. 
Next in importance to soil conditions is a convenient location 
with reference to a good market. The berries should reach their 
destination without delay, preferably early in the morning follow- 
ing the day of picking. To secure the best prices they should also 
reach the market before the height of the main wild-blueberry 
season. A situation to the south of the great areas of wild blue- 
berries in northern New England, Canada, and northern Michigan 
is therefore desirable. One of the most promising districts for 
blueberry culture is the cranberry region of New Jersey, for there 
an ideal soil occurs in conjunction with an early-maturing season 
and excellent shipping facilities to the markets of Philadelphia and 
New York. 
Situations lable to late spring freezes, such as the bottoms of 
valleys, should be avoided, for although the blueberry plant itself 
is seldom permanently injured by such a freeze its crop of fruit may 
be destroyed. 
It has been observed that in or around bodies. of water, such as 
cranberry reservoirs or cranberry bogs temporarily flooded to pre- 
vent frost or insect injury, the wild bushes often produce normal 
crops of blueberries in seasons in which the wild crop of upland 
blueberries has been destroyed by late spring freezes. Proximity 
to such bodies of water is evidently advantageous. | 
In regions subject to very low winter temperatures a blanket of 
snow sufficiently deep to cover the bushes often protects them com- 
pletely, when twigs not covered by the snow are winterkilled. In 
the very cold February of 1918 the fruiting twigs of lowbush 
hybrids at Whitesbog, N. J., unprotected by snow, were killed by 
temperatures of about 12° below zero F. Both parents of these 
hybrids were uninjured at Greenfield, N. H., where the temperature 
went down to 30° below zero, but the plants there were covered with 
deep snow. Another observation made in the same season on 
Crotched Mountain, N. H., merits attention in thisconnection. Wild- 
blueberry bushes 6 to 7 feet high, the tops of which projected through 
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