The three fundamental requirements for successful blueberry culture are:  (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.  Next in importance to these essentials is a location such that the berries may reach the market without delay.  The best prices are obtained about the beginning of the wild blueberry season.  The main crop of wild blueberries comes from northern New England, Canada and northern Michigan.  A location to the south of these areas where the berries will mature earlier is, therefore, to be desired for the commercial cultivator.  One of the most promising districts now known is the cranberry region of New Jersey, where berries mature early and the shipping facilities to the market in Philadelphia, New York and Boston are good.

Another important factor to be considered in selecting a location for a blueberry patch is the possibility of late spring freezes.  For this reason the bottoms of valleys should be avoided.  Freezing seldom injures the blueberry plant itself, but the fruit crop is often destroyed in this way.  From past observations it appears that wild blueberries growing in or around bodies of water frequently escape the injurious effects of late spring freezes, and it seems, therefore, that a flooding equipment for blueberry plantations similar to those used for cranberry bogs may, under certain circumstances, prove commercially advantageous.

At the present time, however, only a beginning has been made in blueberry culture.  The yield and profits in field plantations from improved bushes have not as yet been ascertained.  There is, however, one small planting in Indiana where complete records have been maintained for the past six years.  This plantation was started in 1889 in a natural blueberry bog, which was first drained and then set with wild blueberry bushes transplanted without selection for individual productiveness or size of berries.  On this plantation the yield per acre has averaged 1,741 quarts for the past six years.  This average would have been somewhat higher except for the almost total failure of the crop in 1910, due to late spring freezes.  An average of 14-1/2 cents a quart has been received for the berries and the net profit per acre is estimated at $116 a year.  In this estimate allowance has been made for interest, taxes and depreciation.  The expense for weeding, cultivation, and irrigation is placed at $20 an acre and the cost of picking at five cents a quart.

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