40 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. . 



Prof. Fletcher: It is not to be compared with the fresh mixture, home 

 made, and is not as good as the oil spray properly prepared. 



Q. We use 15 pounds of sulphur to 20 pounds of lime, and have found 

 that satisfactory, and I think the experiments of other states have proved 

 it is not safe to go below that on the sulphur side. 



Mr. Perry: I used this last spring 30 pounds of sulphur and 40 pounds 

 of lime to 150 gallons of water, and my experience this last spring was that 

 it was as effective ; but I would not say that it would be in the future. I think 

 it is well worth investigating. It is easily applied. " 



Prof. Fletcher: I doubt if you can go below 15 pounds of sulphur to 50 

 gallons of water with good results. 



Q. What is the difference in the fruit if it is cross-pollinated? 



Prof. Fletcher: You get no difference in the fruit the first year when 

 you pollinate the Bartlett with the Kieffer for example; you get a straight 

 Bartlett. The cross is in the seed. 



Q. Does it make any difference in the fruit itself? 



Prof. Fletcher: Because the pollen is more acceptable to the pistils, 

 it makes a larger fruit, but does not affect the color or quality; it affects the 

 size, but not the cjuality. 



Q. I would like to ask if you have had any experiments to show whether 

 Bartlett pears would fertilize themselves from other trees of the same variety; 

 that is, if there was a number of pears, whether they would fertilize better 

 than in a single one. 



Prof. Fletcher: I think there are strains of Bartlett which are self-fertile 

 and others which are self-sterile. An orchard containing different Bartlett 

 pears from different sources would be more likely to fertilize each other than 

 Bartlett trees all obtained from the same source. 



Q. What is a pedigree plant? 



Prof. Fletcher: What is a pedigree animal? It is an animal of which 

 you know the history or the parentage. A pedigree plant is one that you 

 know the plant from which it came, and the plant from which that came, 

 and so on, and what they have done. A pedigree plant is one of which 

 you know that the ancestory from which it was propagated have loeen ex- 

 cellent individuals; it is a line of descent. 



Mr. Crane: Do you think any trees are liable to become sterile where 

 they were continually propagated from the nursery? 



Prof. Fletcher: I think trees continually propagated from the nursery 

 are liable to become less fruitful, but I would not want to sav thev would 

 become sterile. I should always prefer to go to bearing trees, of course, 

 in propagating nursery stock. 



Mr. Whitten: I am in the strawberry business. I don't grow pedigree 

 plants. I don't go back on selection, that is all right, but don't call them 

 pedigree strawberries. 



Prof. Fletcher: He is all right about that. The point he makes is, selected 

 plants, but not pedigree plants; plants that are selected because of their 

 superior value. I use the term pedigree because it is in such common usage 

 that people know what it is. But "selected" is the. better term. 



Mr. Hotchkins: There is a point in the selection of strawberry plants 

 I wish the Professor would explain. It may have an important bearing 

 on this topic. I have understood it is the case that runnel's taken near the 

 parent plant are liable to be more fruitful than those tAvo or three stages 

 away; that those taken farther away from the parent plant are more liable 



