260 Keport of the Horticulturist of the 



cause the fruit to set well. During periods of little sunshine, 

 especially when the days are shortest, more difficulty is experi- 

 enced in getting the fruit to set. The blossoms that are not 

 properly fecundated soon fall off as shown in Fig. 16. When the 

 weather is not favorable for the setting of fruit the blossoms 

 should be pollinated by hand during the driest part of every 

 second or third day. This may be done by jarring the open 

 flowers over a camel's hair brush or small spoon and touching 

 the stigma with the pollen that has thus been gathered. By 

 passing from flower to flower in this way the blossoms become 

 fertilized satisfactorily. Small and one-sided fruit which is liable 

 to be found on plants in the forcing house in winter, may be due 

 either to an insufficient supply of pollen or to close fertilization, 

 that is to say, to the fertilizing of the blossom with its own 

 pollen exclusively.* 



Plants in pots. — Of the thirty plants which were assigned to 

 this part of the test, two were discarded because the^- vrere ac- 

 cidentally injured. A third was thrown out because it sent its 

 roots under a partition and into the soil of an adjacent part of the 

 bench. By its rampant growth it soon showed that it had reached 



*Fink, who has made some very interesting observations in this line,** finds that: 



1. The vigor of the fruit is seen soon after pollination takes place. " Of two flowers 

 pollinated at about the same time, one is sometimes half grown before the other makes 

 more than enough growth to make certain the fact that fertilization has taken place. 

 The one that makes this rapid growth from the start ripens nearly as much in advance 

 and is larger than the one that stops growing for a time. * * * i think there are 

 two causes for this difference in development, i. c, insufficient pollination and insuffi- 

 cient nourishment." 



2. The amount of pollen applied to the stigma influ&ces the size and shape of the 

 fruit. " Tomatoes produced from large amounts (of pollen) were large and regular, 

 produced a large number of seeds and did not fail to come to maturity in a single 

 instance; while those from small amounts were smaller in size, had few^er seeds, were 

 not so regular in shape and several stopped growing at the size of a pea. ♦ • * i 

 tried cutting off one side (of the stigma). The result is usually a one-sided tomato but 

 not always. * * • i also tried pollinating one side only and got one-sided fruit as a 

 result." 



3. Pollination may be done effectively during the first four to eight days after the 

 blossom opens. The best time to get pollen for applying to the stigmas is about two 

 days after the blossoms open, when the anthers or pollen sacs begin to open. " The 

 pollen sacs open sooner (after the blossoms open) in small than in largo flowers and 

 sooner in dry than in wet weather. * * * The best time to pollinate artificially is in 

 the driest part of the day." 



4. On the whole, fruits produced by close pollination " are below average size and 

 usually contain fewer than the average number of seeds." 



**Fink, Bruce, Pollination and Reproduction of Lycopersicum Esculentum. BulL 

 Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. Minn., 9: 63C-6-13. 9 N. 1886. 



