The Republican journal., 1922-08-17
BLUEBERRIES..

In many sections of Waldo county the
'blueberry plant is indigenous, notably in
Nortbport, Lincolnville, Searsmont, Lib
eerty, Sesrsport and Stockton Springs.
1t is also found in several other towns
growing on considerable areas. The fa-
vorsble season. comparativelyhigh prices
and the Saco Valley CanningCo o. located at
Belfast, Maine, have awakened an interest
in blueberries as revenue crop, in the
minds OF hundreds of real estate owners
in the above mentioned localities.
Washington county was the pioneer
and is today the leader in the canning of
s5lueberries for the wholesale market The
business was started there in small way
more than 40 years ago Twenty-seven
-years ago, at about this time of the year,
the present editor of The Journal was
employed by Hon, Samuel w. Mathews,
then Commissioner of Industrial and La
Dor Statistics for the State of Maine, to
go to Washington county, to investigate
che blueberry industry there and to write
an article giving the facts about it for
qualification in his annual report. At that
time we found from the books of the can
ming companies that the average annual
pack for the three previous years had
been about 30,0 900 bushels year, and that
about l0, 900 bushels more each year were
shipped in crates to New England cities.
These shipments were made from berries
which, on account of favorable locations,
Tipened few days before the main crop
aad matured. 1t is safe to say that this
years production in Washington county
ecounty will be twice that of 81 years ago.
The production of blueberries in Waldo
county, as business, is now about what
ut was in Washington county 40 years
ago. We can never produce as many
berries as are gathered there because we
have a comparatively limited acreage
which is adapted to blueberry culture /
We believe, however, that our blueberry
lands, acre for acre, are better than those
of Washington county and that it we had
even ten years ago adopted and followed
there, we would now have five times as
many acres producing bueberries, than
we have now ana these acres would be, on
an average, producing FIVE times as many
bushels per acre as our blueberry lands
are now producing On the contrary sM
have allowed weeds and bushes of no
value to grow and take entire possession
of thousands of acres, which might be |
yielding profitable crop. No entirely |
satisfactory success can be realized in
raising blueberries if weeds, grass and
E5ushes are allowed to compete unchecked
with the blueberry plant for occupancy
of the soil. These hindrances to success
cannot be wholly exterminated, but they
De kept in subsection by burning, as
ing Systematically done in Washing
county, where each owner or lessee |
-. Jlueberry lands ''burns over" about
sone-fourth of his lands each year. I'm
Smediately after the harvest is over be |
cuts all the bushes close to the ground
and piles them in some spot where no
blaeberries will grow. In the early spring,
Just as soon as the dead leaves, weeds
and grasses are dry enough to burn he
xpplies the match, burning small areas
at times lest the fire get control This
destroys weed seeds. The very early
spring is chosen for burning because the
Burberry plant spreads its roots near the
surface and are not injured by light fire
when the ground is wet. The burnep
over lands will bear no fruit until the
year after the burning. In general terms
this is the rule for burnings, but common
sense must be used. A very thin soil,
.sover ltdges, should not be urned over
Some lands produce best when burned
.sover once in three years, others, per-
haps, in five.
The above tells very nearly all there is
70 tell about blueberry farming as now
practiced in the State of Maine. We
venture to suggest that, while our farm
ers are cutting bushes and otherwise try
ing to produce more blueberries, it would
be for their pecuniary benefit if they
would emphatically reiterate that blue
berries are property, and that a person
has no more right to enter upon lands and
pick and carry away the owners berries
than be or she has to dig and carry away
his potatoes.
Blueberry farming in Maine. Michigan
and a few other localities, had SO in
creased that some years ago the United
States Department Of Agriculture began
to study its needs. Soil tests were made
which soon established the fact that
blueberIies can be profitsbly grown only
on what are known as ''acid soils" Ex-
periments in hybridization between &C.
1ected plants having great productive
power and bearing large berries, resulted
!IyTZI1 IN Case Of Accidents
Cuts, Scalds, Burns