SUMMER MEETING. 101 



have had experience in horticulture cannot fail to receive great benefit 

 from the work, in the broader view it will give them rf horticulture 

 and their own State. Emma J. Park, Springfield, Mo. 



STUDIES IN POLLINATION. 



During the past two years the Experiment Station has been car- 

 rying on experiments to ascertain what varieties of our cultivated 

 fruits are self-fertilizing and which ones need cross-pollination in order 

 to produce fruit. While the work is only fairly begun, some points of 

 interest have already been developed, and we are now ready to answer 

 many of the questions that are sent to ns concerning the possibility of 

 self-fertilization in certain varieties. 



First let us understand the terms relative to pollination and fertil- 

 ization. The pollination of a flower simply means the act of placing 

 pollen on the pistil of that flower. Fertilization (in the sense here 

 used) means the action of the pollen which causes the fruit to set. 

 Thus it will be seen that a flower may be capable of self-pollination 

 without being capable of self-fertilization ; that is, it is capable of self- 

 pollination if it can transfer its pollen from the stamen to the pistil, 

 but it is not capable of self-fertilization unless this pollen causes the 

 fruit to set. It has been proven that in some varieties that are capa- 

 ble of transferring their pollen from the anther to the pistil, the pollen 

 is not capable of germinating there and causing the setting of fruit. 



In the peach orchard the following 24 varieties were worked upon : 

 Hale's Early, Foster, Old Mixon Cling, Heath Cling, Wonderful, Fam- 

 ily Favorite, Blood Free, Mountain Rose, Arkansas Mammoth Cling, 

 Alexander, Rivers' Early, Old Mixom Free, Stump, Snow, Arkansas 

 Traveler, Elberta, Crawford's Early, Smock, Crawford's Late, Silver 

 Medal, Salway, St. John, Gold Dust, Piquett's Late. 



All these varieties were found to be capable of self-fertilization and 

 the self-fertilized fruit developed as well as it did where the flowers 

 were left exposed to be pollinated by natural methods, and as well as 

 any of the cross pollinated fruits did. 



Only eight varieties of plums fruited this year, as follows: Lom- 

 bard, Spaulding, Abundance, DeSota, Pond's Seedling, Shropshire 

 Damson, Imperial Gage and Golden Beauty. All of these were found 

 to be capable of perfect self fertilization. 



Of the cherries, Ostheim, Early Richmond, Montmorency, English 

 Morello, Leib, Olivet and May Duke were found to develop perfect 

 fruit when self-pollinated, but the few self-pollinated fruits that set 

 were small and dropped shortly before the ripening period. 



