THE POLLINATION OF ORCHARD FRUITS. JJ 



BLOSSOMING PERIODS. 



In fact, this question of blossoming at the same time turned 

 out to be of more practical consequence than many of the more 

 beautiful and recondite theories of the laboratory horticulturist. 

 There are so many varieties of plums, and they belong to so many 

 different species, with qualities so highly diverse, that it is very 

 easy, taking it by and large, for one variety to miss another in its 

 blossoming season. Further south this study of blossoming sea- 

 sons is very important, but for districts as far north as Minnesota 

 and Vermont it is of much less consequence. The entire blos- 

 soming season is much shorter here, and, moreover, we do not 

 cultivate so many species. The various classes of plums which 

 extend the blossoming season so greatly in the central and south- 

 ern states are almost unknown in our orchards. It is a question 

 which the practical grower needs to keep in mind, but which he 

 need not lose much sleep over while he lives in the salubrious 

 climate of Minnesota. 



AGENCIES OF POLLINATION. 



Before leaving the subject it is almost necessary that a word 

 should be said regarding the means by which the pollen is carried 

 from one tree to another. Most persons have supposed that this 

 was done largely by the wind, and out on the plains, where wind 

 is plenty and cheap, that view has very naturally taken strong hold. 

 The only difficulty with it is that it does not agree well with the 

 facts in the case. The pollen of apples, pears and plums is usually 

 gummy, sticky, viscid, adhering to whatever it touches, and not 

 inclined to move about in the wind. Of course during those de- 

 lightful spring days at plum blossoming time, when the wind occa- 

 sionally blows with a force equal to the business of moving a stone 

 fence, it is not unreasonable to suppose that even the sticky and 

 unwilling pollen might be moved somewhat out of its tracks. 

 Still one will see that the pollen masses would cling together, and 

 would soon lodge on the ground rather than on the pistils for 

 which they were meant, and that the whole business would be 

 poorly and inefficiently done. 



The real work of scattering pollen, in ninety-nine cases out of 

 a hundred, is done by the bees, especially the wild or cultivated 

 honey bees. The gummy, mucilaginous pollen sticks to them, 

 the hairy surface of the insect body being specially suitable for 

 sticking purposes, and the bee passes, from tree to tree laden all 

 over with yellow fertilizing material. Cases have been called to 



