BEES AND FRUIT-GROWING 



perfect clusters, as Niagara, Agawam, Catawba, Concord, and 

 Isabella. Nearly all the self -sterile varieties are hybrids, which 

 cannot pollinate each other; but require pollination by self- 

 fertile varieties in order to produce marketable clusters. A vine- 

 yard of seK-sterile varieties will, therefore, produce no fruit 

 unless there are a sufficient number of self-fertile vines planted 

 among them to pollinate them properly. (Fig. 118.) 



^yhen the cranberry-bogs of Cape Cod and New Jersey bloom 

 there are hundreds of level acres, which are literally covered 

 with myriads and myriads of pinkish-white blossoms. The 

 flowers do not furnish much nectar and, although they remain 

 in bloom for two weeks, attract comparatively few insects. On 

 one side of a cranberry-bog at Halifax, containing 126 acres, 3 

 or 4 colonies of bees were placed. This number was evidently 

 inadequate to cover the whole field, and it was very noticeable 

 that the crop of berries was largest nearest to the hives, and 

 became thinner and thinner as the distance from them in- 

 creased. A small piece of bog entirely screened from insects pro- 

 duced very little fruit. "In my travels over the United 

 States," says E. R. Root, "I never saw a situation that demon- 

 strated more clearly the value of bees as pollinators than did 

 this piece of cranberry-bog." 



More dissatisfaction and loss are caused among strawberry- 

 growers from ignorance of the necessity of cross-pollination 

 than from any other cause. A part of the plants are pistillate 

 and a part hermaphrodite, or possess both stamens and pistils. 

 The former remain sterile unless pollinated by insects. As the 

 pistillate bloom is the more prolific, it is the practice in field- 

 culture to plant three rows of pistillate to one of staminate. It 

 is not at all rare, according to Fuller, to find perfect plants 

 which are sterile to their own pollen, although the pollen is 

 perfectly potent to pollinate other varieties. Unless the plants, 



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