412 BOARD OF AGBICULTUBE. 



Probably very few of our trees are entirely sterile or barren when 

 standing alone. We do not know that any, unless it may be some of the 

 plums and grapes, have what are called in the strawberry imperfect blos- 

 soms, those of one plant being all pistillate or feminine, fruit-bearing blos- 

 soms, and the other all staminate blossoms furnishing pollen to fructify 

 the others. In fact, this condition is very rare in strawberries, there being 

 few entirely barren when grown alone, though practically so as far as 

 profitable production goes. 



In the plums more than in any other of our orchard trees have been 

 found defective blossoms. In some the pistil, which should form the fruit, 

 is entirely lacking. These will be always barren, at least if all the blos- 

 soms are so. In some the stamens and pistils do not develop at the same 

 time, or the pistils are longer than the stamen, so that the pollen from 

 that blossom can not reach it. These can only become impregnated by 

 the pollen from other ilowers. 



While in some cases, as we said before, the wind conveys the pollen 

 from one tree to another, this is but an uncertain method, as it "bloweth 

 where it listeth," and neither time nor direction can be depended upon. 

 Bees are more reliable, but when there are many bees of one variety in a 

 solid block, they may for some reason limit themselves to that variety 

 alone, and thus not carry to it any pollen from another variety, though 

 it is but a little distance away. This is probably also true of other insects. 

 The pollen of apples, pears and plums is sticky and does not move much 

 with the wind, yet with apples and pears the pollen is so abundant that 

 three or four rows of one kind may usually be safely planted, especially 

 if bees are kept near them. Some would say two or three rows of plums, 

 but we should feel more sure of fertility if each row was of a different 

 variety from that next to it. 



The nearer the fruit comes to a natiu-al state, or as a seedling, the 

 gi-eater the chance of its being self -fertilizing, or having a perfect flower, 

 and thus trees standing alone, that have not been grafted, often bear 

 heavily. If it is desired to graft such a tree a few of the top branches 

 should be left untouched that they may furnish pollen for the blossoms on 

 the graft. 



We used to know as a boy wild grape vines that blossomed full, and 

 were very fragrant every year, yet never bore a grape. They were 

 known as "he" vines, but we were not able to tell then whether the blos- 

 soms were strictly staminate or not, and we were more interested in 

 locating the vines that bore good grapes than in those that had none. 

 Cross pollenization between two different species, as the pear and apple, 

 may occur, but we have no authentic proof of such cases.— American 

 Cultivator. 



