168 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
the eui‘(‘, l»iit against all those argiiinents the lioard stood 
linn. 
And it eaine to pass that in the y(‘ar 1926 tin* people 
of these United Slates I'f'aeluMl tin' eonelnsion that so 
long as man existc'd dis(‘as(' wonld (‘xist loo, that while 
the Federal Board of Mcnlical Seienee had made ns look 
ridiculous to otiuu’ nations \\ ith our exclusion |)olicy and 
had killed commerce' and trade', Ihe'y haeln’t acceemjelishe'd 
anything that they were crealeel tee acceemplish. The'y 
haeln’t reduce'd elisease one' ieeta, see een the uniteel elemand 
e)f an awakeneel anel eeutrageel pe'eeple Quarantine' Nee. 68 
was jeassed by Uongre'ss abeelishing the Fe'eleral Beearel e)l 
Meelical Science as an eerganizatieen in restraint eef Iraele, 
and in eourse e)f time these Uniteel Stale's resumed its 
])lace among the great natieens eef the eaith. 
M. A. U. 
TWI:NTV-FI\ F DOLLAHS TO FIFTY DOLLABS WILL 
BF PAID FOB SPFCIALLY FINF BLUFBFBBY 
PLANTS 
For several years past Mr. F. V. Coville, of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, and Miss Elizabeth C. White, of 
New Lisbon, New Jersey, have been cultivating blueberries 
and working to produce new and better varieties. To get new 
varieties they find the very best wild bushes and then cross¬ 
breed these wild plants. The seeds resulting from the cross 
breeding grow into all sorts of new varieties, just as seedling 
apples are seldom like the tree they came from. Many of these 
new varieties of blueberries are poorer than their parents, but 
about one in a thousand turns out to be much better than eithe 
parent and makes a promising new variety. 
About ten years ago the Department of Agriculture published 
Mr. Coville’s first work on blueberry culture. His most sur¬ 
prising discovery was that blueberries cannot live in a well- 
balanced, fertile soil. They require a sour or acid soil and are 
actually killed by the application cf fertilizer which would be 
the best possible food for ordinary plants. Some years ago a 
wild blueberry plant was found in Massachusetts with berries 
more than three-quarters of an inch in diameter, but it was 
killed by people who did not understand its proper care by 
being fertilized. 
Since 1911 Miss White has been associated with Mr. Coville 
in these investigations, he in the Government greenhouses at 
Washington working out the scientific problems and originating 
new varieties by cross breeding, and she at New Lisbon, New 
Jersey, raising these new varieties and the best wild plants that 
could be found. Mr. Coville and Miss White are now trying to 
find a number of wild plants to use for this work. They al¬ 
ready have a few plants that have berries three-quarters of an 
inch through, and hope to produce hybrid berries an inch in 
diameter. They want more unusually fine wild plants, and will 
pay, $50.00 for especially fine plants with very large berries. 
But it is not only the size of the berry that counts, and they 
are willing to pay smaller prices for plants that have many 
berries of slightly smaller size if these berries are of unusually 
fine flavor. Some bushes bear much more heavily than others. 
On some bushes the berries stick so tight that when they are 
picked a piece of the stem pulls off with the berries, or the, 
berry is torn and the juice leaks out. On other plants the 
berries come off the stems just right. Berries from some 
bushes spoil soon after they are picked, while others will keep 
for a week. Some berries are black and others of a beautiful 
light blue color. There are doubtless thousands of bushes in 
the country with berries three-quarters of an inch or more in 
diameter, and many other bushes with berries just a little 
smaller but of unusually fine quality, but it is only by having 
people on the watch for them that these fine bushes can be 
discovered. 
The fine varieties developed by cross breeding will be dis¬ 
tributed by the Department of Agriculture to persons who have 
learned enough about cultivating wild blueberries to show they 
can handle the new varieties with success. 
Persons who are interested in finding such plants should 
write at once to Miss Elizabeth C. White, of New Lisbon, New 
Jersey. Miss White will send full directions, with measuring 
gauges, and bottles of formaldehyde for mailing large beiTies 
that are discovered. 
Through the efforts of Mr. Coville of the United States De- 
])artment of Agriculture, in co-operation with Miss White, the 
cultivation of blueberries will probably be well established in 
a few years. 
Blueberries are commonly known in the South as huckle¬ 
berries. __ 
Th(' Dim'tors of the Ainerieaii Pfi'ony Society had 
th('ir annual meeting in New York in March 1919, and 
adopted a proti'st against Quarantine No. 37, which very 
|)ertineidly points out the unjust and autocratic tea- 
turi's of th(' (juarantine, also that it is unscientific and 
ill-consider('d. 
The Directors of the American Picony Society also 
respectfully presented the lollowing recommendations to 
the Secretary of Agriculture, to the IIorti(*ullural Board, 
and to the Memhf'is of the Senate and House ol Repre- 
seidatives: 
That the Quarantine regulation No. 37 should be at 
once susjiended. 
That a new quarantine measure should he framed 
with the co-operation of the nursery and greerdmuse in¬ 
terests, which should contain only such provisions ol 
exclusion as are demonstrably and convincingly neces¬ 
sary, and such as would be really effective. 
That where importaid classes of foreign ])laids are to 
be excluded, several years notice of such exclusion 
should he given, in ordi'r that the cultivation ol stock in 
this country may have reached a fairly adequate develop¬ 
ment before the foreign sources of supply are cut off. 
A NFW LAW PROPOSFD FOR MICHIGAN 
There is a bill before the House of Representatives in 
Michigan to jirevent shipment of nursery stock from one 
State into another under other than its true name. That 
the nursery business should need so many laws would in¬ 
dicate that nurserymen are mostly rogues. 
To those who are acquainted with nurserymen it is 
ditlicult to conceive the necessity of such a bill. It goes 
without saying that there is about the same percentage 
of unscrupulous j)eople in the jiursery business as there 
are in any other, but such a bill, if it became law would 
really do more harm than good. 
Those who are familiar with horticulture and the no- 
manclature of plants will readily recognize the tremen¬ 
dous possibilities for law suits. The framers of such 
legislation are evidently not familiar with plant life at 
all. Often the nurseryman is put to a great deal of 
trouble to interpret the customer’s order and there would 
often be more dissatisfaction in shipping stock as or¬ 
dered than upon the nurseryman’s interpretation. 
Very often common names are used. These vary in 
different localities, to say nothing of synonyms and con- 
tlicting authorities as to the correct nomenclature of 
])lants. Of course, such a law as is proposed in Michigan 
will be all right when all Pa'onies, Boses, fruits, shrubs 
and trees have a name which is known to the public and 
can always be identified as belonging to one particular 
])lant. Fven under such conditions there will be an open¬ 
ing for a law suit. A Baldwin Api)le grown in one lo¬ 
cality may have an entirely different a])pearance in an¬ 
other. The Bill should be entitled, a Bill to provide em¬ 
ployment for lawyers. 
