They grow about 1 foot tall and cover the fields. We call them wild because these plants occur naturally in Maine, and we manage their growth to improve production. Native Americans used wild blueberry as food. And we began to manage them after the Civil War when berries were sent to feed the Union troops. Wild blueberries differ from the cultivated blueberry in the center and the European blueberry on the left. The major difference is the size of the blueberries, but wild blueberries also have a more complex flavor, because they are a mixture of many different varieties.
Commercial wild blueberry production is concentrated in Maine, Atlantic Canada and Quebec, with minor productions in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Michigan. Maine has about 44, acres and two of the largest fruit farms in the U. Two early reports by University of Maine researcher Munson describe the industry. The actual acreage now is lots less than it was in the 18th through the s, as these areas were managed by burning over the fields every five or six years.
Early berries were handpicked and shipped in quart wood boxes by schooner and by rail. In , the Tabbut rake allowed for a more efficient harvest. This rake was fashioned after the cranberry scoop. Berries were first canned in , and there were 21 factories by the s.
Maine was the largest producer in the s in the U. Whereas cultivated blueberry production has increased to 66 percent, with now most produced in the Pacific Northwest and southern United States.
Wild production has increased from 10 to million pounds over the past 50 years. Maine had over , acres but produced only about 10 million pounds in the s. It now produces million pounds on just 44, acres, by improving our management practices. Most fields are under 10 acres, and we have about growers. Plants were burned over by Native Americans, but in the s, fuel oil was used in burners and is still done in some of the rockier fields today.
This is dangerous. It pollutes the air, and if fire escapes, it can destroy other property. But the burning process is good in that it does kill some insects and diseases.
The need for burning is because of the rocks deposited by the glacier. And these are common in many fields in the coastal area. We now use excavators to remove the rocks and smooth the fields. When rocks are removed, fields can be mowed and machine-harvested, which reduces the two most-expensive management costs. But we need specialized mowers to follow the contour of the land.
This is possible since pruning only takes about a third of the plant. Stems emerge from the underground portion of the plant, or the rhizome, which makes up the other two-thirds of the biomass of the plant.
Blueberries keep longer in storage than many other similar berries, making them an important forage crop that Native Americans dried and stored for winter. They were eaten fresh when in season and incorporated into a variety of basic stews and other food combinations.
In addition, Native American use of Vaccinium species for medical purposes was widespread, including the use of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits in various preparations.
In many ways, Native Americans directly influenced the development of modern blueberry varieties by passing on knowledge about edible use of the berries, growth habit and the occurrence of blueberry shrubs, and other information to European immigrants. The story of how modern commercial blueberry cultivation came to be starts with the daughter of a New Jersey cranberry farmer.
However, most other growers at the time did not believe they could be domesticated. There was simply a lack of understanding of the basic needs of blueberries. In the early s, a USDA botanist named Frank Coville, began to study North American blueberry species with an intent to develop improved varieties for commercial cultivation. Interestingly, Coville had already made history in the world of U.
He would later go on to become the chief botanist for USDA, publishing more than scientific papers and books in his lifetime. She offered acreage on her farm for research and development, partnering with Coville to lay the groundwork for our modern blueberry varieties. The huckleberry looks similar to the blueberry, but has 10 large seeds within each berry.
The development of blueberry farming began in when a scientist, Doctor Frederick Coville, started experimenting to create a better blueberry. Elizabeth White, daughter of a cranberry farmer, read about his work and invited him to conduct his experiments on her father's farm.
Miss White was interested in finding a kind of blueberry would produce large berries which could be grown as another crop on her father's large farm, called Whitesbog, located in Pemberton Township, Burlington County. Miss White encouraged local people to go out into the woods look for bushes with large berries. She offered cash rewards for the largest berries and named the bushes after the finder.
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