North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["J. Rosano II" <GIANNI-2@prodigy.net>]

Hi Betty:

Good one Betty! Great link. And did purport the collaboration of White &
Coville. Found that quite interesting....
Around this time every year when the pints start coming in and you can get
the "selects" is when I thank these pioneers with the 1st bite of Bloooooo-
berry pie! Ahhh, heaven!

Best wishes,
John

Betty Mayfield wrote:
> 
> In the 1937 edition of the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, Colville writes a
> chapter telling of his early blueberry research in Greenfield, New
> Hampshire. He also mentions later research aided by Elizabeth C. White in
> New Jersey. There is a web page telling of her encouragement in finding
> good blueberry varieties in Whitesbog, New Jersey, which were used for
> breeding also.
> <http://www.whitesbog.org/ellizabethwhite.html>
> 
> It's nice to see these early pioneers getting some recognition.
> 
> Betty
> 
> At 03:16 PM 8/23/2000 -0400, you wrote:
> >Excerpted from the NH Weekly Market Bulletin...
> >
> >Date: Wednesday, August 16th.
> >
> >Story: All Cultivated Blueberries Trace Back to Greenfield, NH
> >
> >Every pint of cultivated blueberries harvested in the world contains a
> >little bit of New Hampshire....
> >As the blueberry harvest for 2000 progresses, it's worth taking a look
> >at the history of the domestication of the species, and there's nobody
> >better to go to than Roger Swain, nationally acclaimed writer on the
> >horticultural subjects and host of the popular PBS gardening series,
> >Crockett's Victory Garden.
> >Today's highbush blueberries trace their origins to an old farm in the
> >NH town of Greenfield that was purchased in 1905 by a USDA botanist
> >named Frederick Vernon Coville to be a summer vacation retreat.
> >Coville discovered the overgrown pastures on the farm were full of both
> >highbush and lowbush blueberries which yielded plentiful fruit for his
> >family to harvest. Swain writes.
> >"Nobody contemplated growing them commercially until Coville began his
> >famous experiments, discovering in short order that blueberries needed
> >a highly acid soil to grow well. If you plant them in ordinary garden
> >soil, they will yellow and die.
> >"In the summer of 1908 he selected a wild highbush plant whose fruits
> >had a superior size and flavor, which he named "Brooks" after
> >Fred Brooks, a neighbor on whose land the bush was growing, and a
> >lowbush he named "Russell" from Frank Russell's place on the other side
> >of the road.
> >"Back in Washington he crossed these two berries. They were in essence
> >the Adam & Eve of the cultivated blueberry," Swain continues.
> >"The first hybrid blueberry was named 'Pioneer.' It was introduced
> >along with two others by the USDA in 1920, and the rest, as they say,
> >is history."
> >Today there are more than 150 varieties of commercially grown blue-
> >berries. In the US more than 50,000 acres are in blueberry plantations,
> >and the fruit is now grown around the world. Coville's experiments have
> >generated value estimated at more than a billion dollars.
> >And those blueberry genetics all trace back to a little hill farm in
> >New Hampshire.
> >
> >Thanks to the, NH Weekly Market Bulletin.
> >Steven H. Taylor Commissioner
> >NH Dept. of Agriculture-Markets & Food.
> >
> >Funny most folks thought we only grew apples in NH.... : ]
> >
> >Best wishes,
> >John
> >Blueberry/NH
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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