New Commercial Fruits in the United States

Abstract

O. ATKINS writes in the American Fruit Grower (Dec. 1939) on the utility of the wild dryland blueberry (Vacdnium vaccillans Kalm) in relation to soil conservation. Experiments have shown that it has unusual erosion-resistant qualities on account of its underground shoots, which send out a mass of fine roots and bind the soil together over a large area. In addition to this useful property, the blue-black fruits promise to form a successful commercial crop, and as the plant will grow and fruit in partial shade or full sunlight it is well suited to ‘hill-culture’. A systematic breeding programme is being undertaken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Soil Conservation Service.