Page 12 



Growing." Fletcher in his book, "How 

 to Make a Fruit Garden," Oregon Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station Bulletin 

 No. 104, and in Idaho this variety is 

 listed as self-sterile. The same varia- 

 tions are also noticed with the Grimes 

 Golden. Fletcher classifies the Grimes 

 as self-sterile, Oregon bulletin as self- 

 fertile, and Idaho reports it as partially 

 self-fertile. This peculiar phenomena 

 existing among different varieties makes 

 it almost necessary to test out commer- 

 cial varieties in each locality. The re- 

 sults secured are shown in the follow- 

 ing table: 



BETTER FRUIT 



to be true with such varieties as the 

 Bismarck, Cox Orange, Hydes King, 

 Haas, JefTeries, King David, Mother, 

 Borne Beautv, Twenty-Ounce Pippin 

 and White Winter Permain. Kraus 

 of Oregon, states that "some varieties 

 of apples have been found to be 

 self -sterile three years out of five and 

 self-fertile the other two." 



Hendrickson, of California, in his 

 work with the common honey bee as 

 an agent in prune pollination has found 

 that the Imperial prune, though usually 

 self -sterile, in occasional years, at least, 

 is partially self-fertile. The Winter 



TABLE l.-SELF-STERILE AND SELF-FERTILE VARIETIES-UNIVERSITY OF^IDAHO.^^ 

 yarietu Blosso.ns ,>aagcd No. fnnts se, Fr«» Fruit 



1911 1912 1914 1911 1912 1911 



,16 ... SI SI 3S.8 



Ai-kansas Beauty ;■• "* n ... 



Arkansas Black "» g ... 9 1.2 



Ben Davis 'y° » " 



Bailey's Sweet 5'= JA; § .. (i 8 1.1 



Bismarck "^% . . . . l.ts » ■• „ „ 



Ben Hur ....SJ ,28 ... 9 •* •* 



Blue Winter Pcarniain 119^ ' ■ " 175 . . 9 9 3.2 



Cox Orange "»2 ■■ ]'= .. 2 2 1.3 



Early Harvest ■:.■ •• ^''^ -'q 



Eik Horn ''S A-.^ nAj jc 227 4 247 2.2 



Grimes Golden 683 9/17 ^b5 in ,l 24 3.6 



Gano 310 .... -JoS ^ j. 34 3.5 



Gravenstein 5s9 ' " ' ' 207 ... 8 8 l.B 



Hyde's King 189 •' ' 10 lU 5.3 



Hitt :; ^22? :::: 286 ... • 4 .79 



Haas ,..0 inn . . . S 5 1.1 



j^ff-^-;},^, ::::: isl 17370 i3i7 5 54- u see 2.9 



Jonathan ^c, 248 ... 3 3 .49 



King David 357 .... ^ 5 j.l 



Mann S?2 • ■ ■ • {jn 2 ... C 2 .41 



Mother 317 .... I'O ^^ 33 j.g 



Maiden's Blush ?°t ]n{ ... 



Minkler i^?| ' • ' ' H] 2 ... 4 6 1.4 



Missouri Pippin »''= 239 ... IV 1" '-^ 



Montreal Beauty ,28 ' ■ ■ " " "• 



Mcintosh Red AAi Zna '0 ... U 



Northwestern Greening ~ii " " ... » " 



Northern Spy *■> ogj ... 75 75 19.9 



Oldenburg :,: {^g ... 



Primate '^1 •■ ^*" 4 4 4.4 



Palouse iSX 60 60 33.3 



Red June J°" ■ • • • ^gg 



R. I. Greening "' A^gj 535 470 470 4.6 



Rome Beauty 5°^ •'-*° ' " 1 1 .4 



Spitzenburg ^"" {ii ... 1 1 -1' 



Twenty Oz. Pippin Vjl " " 263 ... 



Transcendent Crab ^kn " " 192 ... 



Tetofsky i?" •• ]to ... 



Winesap ^\l ' " m 3 ... 10 13 3.7 



Wealthy ^'^^ 61^5 2U 57 9.53 4 1014 13.2 



Wagener ^J^j ^40 . . . 4 4 .74 



W. W. Permain 4UU x*" 2 . ... 2 .37 



Whitney Crab No. 20 |^2 ^07 ... 



Winter Banana i?a ' ' ' 1 1 -^l 



Westfleld H" 36 36 33.6 



■yellow Transparent i)!' q 



Yellow Bellflower :?'^ 2 2 1.5 



Yellow Newtown ^■'^ 



sPiF STERILE AND SELF-FERTILE VARiE- Banana at MOSCOW was found to be self- 

 TiES— 1914.— LEWisTON, IDAHO. sterile, while at Lewiston, it was par- 

 Number Number Percent .• ,, cplf-fertile. 

 bU^sorns fru,.s of fru^t t^^^l^ ^^'/ {^^^ {ff ^^ ,3,ietieS of apples 



Arkansas Black .... 63 tested for their sterility and fertility, 



Black Twig 27 eighteen were found to be self-sterile; 



Fonaftan ::::::::;: io i" 2.8 seven self-fertile and twenty-five par- 

 Rome Beauty 240 2 .Si tiallv self fertile. They have been class- 



Stavman Winesap : . 225 1 -f ified as follows: 



Spitzenburg 379 A •'» r>i i 



Winter Banana 222 5 2.2 gelf -Sterile Varieties: Arkansas Black, 



Yellow Newtown... 447 20 4.4 Bailey's Sweet, Blacktwig, Ben Hur, Blue 



The above results would indicate thai -^vinter Pearmain, Delicious, Elkhorn, 



the majority of the varieties were prac- Minkler, Mcintosh Red, Northwestern 



tically self-sterile. In a number of in- Greening, Northern Spy, Primate, Rhode 



stances it will be noticed that only one island Greening, Transcendent Crab, 



or two fruits would set out of the 300 Tetofsky, Winesap, Winter Banana, Yel- 



or 400 blossoms enclosed, and while i^.^ Bellflower. 



these have been classed as partially self- Self -fertile Varieties : Arkansas Beauty 



fertile, they would from a practical ^^.^^ Maiden's Blush, Montreal Beauty, 



standpoint be considered as selt-sterile. ' ^^ Wagener, Yellow Transpa- 

 Another surprising feature of the work 



as shown in the table is the fact that "=' ' , .. „ T^ • u:. 

 certain varieties when confined to their Partially Self-fertile: Ben Davis, Bis- 

 own pollen may set a few fruits one marck. Cox Orange Early Harvest, 

 Y^ar and none the next. This was found Grimes Golden, Gano, Gravenstein.Hyde 



February, ip20 



King, Haas, JefTeries, Jonathan, King 

 David, Mann, Mother, Missouri Pippin, 

 Palouse, Rome Beauty, Spitzenburg, 

 Stayman Winesap, Twenty-Ounce Pip- 

 pin, Wealthv, White Winter Pearmain, 

 Whitney Crab No. 20, Westfield, Yellow 

 Newtown. 



Setting of Fruit Under Natural 

 Conditions 

 The percentage of fruit that set when 

 the blossoms were confined to their 

 own pollen, as shown in Table I, varies 

 from .17 per cent to 38.8 per cent. 

 What then would constitute a 

 normal set of fruit among varieties 

 of apples when the blossoms are 

 exposed to insect visitation, as it is 

 a well known fact that all the flowers 

 that are produced in the spring will not 

 mature fruit. To determine the percent- 

 age of fruit that ordinarily sets under 

 natural conditions, counts were made 

 on certain branches at blooming time 

 and final counts made later in the sea- 

 son. The final counts of the "fruits 

 set," were taken on June 15. The re- 

 sults secured were as follows: 



TABLE No. 2.— No. OF FRUITS SET UNDER 

 NATURAL CONDITIONS-1912.-UNIVERSITY 



OF IDAHO. 



Number Number Per cent 



Variety blossoms fruits of fruit 



counted set set 



Waaener 1140 664 58.2 



Grimes . 1077 819 76.0 



Rome . . 1092 510 46.7 



Jon"?han 1106 814 73.5 



The average for the four varieties is 

 63.6 per cent. Unfortunately counts 

 were not made when the fruits were 

 harvested in the fall. If they had been 

 made, it is evident that this average 

 would have been reduced at least 50 

 per cent. A normal set of fruit among 

 apples then would be approximately 

 31.8 per cent. Fletcher states that under 

 eastern conditions "Scarcely one fruit 

 blossom in ten sets fruit, even in the 

 most favorable seasons and with the 

 most productive varieties." From per- 

 sonal observations I am under the im- 

 pression that his estimate would be en- 

 tirely too low for our dry conditions 

 here in the Northwest. 



General view of the cages in the college orchard 

 at the University of Idaho. 



