FRUIT-BLOSSOMS. 



231 



FRUIT-BLOSSOMS. 



or bt'K<>iii;i lU'Vff ijroduccs sft'd in ;i chiscd room; 

 yet, wlieu set out of doors in sumnier, they seed 

 abundantly. Still other plants never produce seed 

 because the insects that feed upon their blossoms 

 have not been imported with the plants. 

 • But this is a large subject, and to me one of great 

 interest, as I study the many ways the Author of 

 nature has provided for the l)est good of all his 

 works. A large number of examples have been 

 g'iven of bees as agents in the production of fruit 

 and seed, and I will give one or two more. 



Mr. H. A. March, of Puget Sound, while here last 

 summer, informed me that he produced large 

 quantities of cauliflower .seed,"and found bees very 

 valuable, as the seed was much moie abundant 

 when hees were provided to woik on-tlie flowers. 



the Creator h;is desired ci'oss-fert ilizal ion anions' 

 plants, and has wisely provided for it in a multi- 

 tude of waj's; and the chances of such fertilization 

 appear to be as great among plants as among our 

 bees, for which such special arrangement has Ijeeii 

 made. We might assume it to be valuable or 

 necessary, even if we could see no good reason for 

 it. We all know that birds or domestic animals 

 will prove fruitful for one or perhaps several gen- 

 erations in spite of the intermarriiige of near rela- 

 tions; but it is, I believe, the universal experience 

 that such unions are most unwise, and, as a rulei 

 prove in.iurious. 



Some twenty-flve oi- thirty years ago Charles 

 Darwin, in studying this subject, and noting the 

 pi'ovisions of nature for tlie cross-fertilization of 



FRUIT-TKEE'^ IX lU.OOM IN THE AUTHORS ORCHARD. 



The stone fruits seem almost incapable of self- 

 fertilization, as is often proven by trying to grow 

 peaches under glass, success seeming to come only 

 when bees are provided while the trees are in bloom. 

 A curious problem has jjresented itself to the 

 horticulturists of this country for a number of 

 yeai's past, in the refusal of some varieties of the 

 Chickasaw plum to produce fruit in the Northern 

 States unless set near some other variety or species 

 of plum, that insects might carry the pollen from 

 one to the other. Such a tree I can see from my 

 window as I write, that is a bank of bloom every 

 spring, but has never, to my knowledge, pi'oduced 

 a crop of fruit. 



Now, suppose It were ti-ue that all trees or plants 

 that produce fruit or seed of value for the use of 

 man would become fertile without the aid of bees 

 or other insects, would it prove them of no value ? 

 Not at all. Enough has been written toshow that 



flowers, became so much interested in it that lie 

 began a large )iumber of experiments to test the 

 value of insects in cross-fertilization, and the 

 effects of cross and self fertilization upon plants. 

 His experiments were conducted with great care, 

 and continued through several j'ears; and his book 

 on the effects of "Cross and Self Fertilization," 

 describing these experiments, containing several 

 hundred pages, is very interesting reading to say 

 the least. 



Of some 125 plants experimented with, more than 

 half were, with insects excluded, either quite 

 sterile or produced less than half as much seed as 

 when insects were allowed to visit them. Among 

 his catalog of these plants I notice the white and red 

 clover. His experiments with these are vei'y similar 

 to those of Prof. Cook, late of Michigan Agricultural 

 College. He says, page 361, of red clover, "One 

 hundred flower-heads on a plant protected by a net 



