POLLINATION OF THE MARTHA CRAB. 2/5 



the No. 13 is quite different. My neighbor out in Murray county 

 had some Kansas corn which he planted just northeast from my corn 

 field, and I v;as greatly surprised — I should say this patch of mine 

 was planted at the same time he planted his across the road — I was 

 greatly surprised to find this No. 13 corn very much different from 

 what it had been the year before, there being a great variation even 

 in the hills. It would probably produce another size before long 

 and get like the other man's corn. I did not know it was this other 

 corn, and I was hunting around for some other cause. Some of 

 you will take exception to this, but I said then I had a fine lesson 

 from it, and the only reason I could find was this corn field across 

 the road. I have taken seed from that and planted it ever since, and 

 this corn has shown up like that ever since, so it was not the con- 

 dition of the soil that might influence some of the kinds. I do not 

 say it should be the same in the case of the apple, but I believe there 

 is more in that than we take into consideration. 



Mr. O. M. Lord; I am a good deal interested in this discussion. 

 I have paid more attention to the pollination of plums than to any 

 other kind of fruit. When the statement is made that the pollen 

 does not primarily influence the character of the fruit it is a mistake. 

 I will refer to a case that Mr. Brand is well acquainted with. I had 

 a Fameuse and a Golden Russet. The trees stood so close together 

 that the limbs interlocked. I had gathered all the Fameuse — the 

 Golden Russet hangs on longer — and long after the Fameuse had 

 been gathered I saw on the limbs of the Fameuse tree some apples. 

 I examined them and found them finely russetted. I picked those 

 apples and sent them to Mr. Brand and he propagated them, and we 

 call them "Mixture." They were russetted like the Golden Russet. 

 There is a great misconception in regard to the effect of pollen. The 

 idea that Prof. MacMillan advanced a few years ago was new to me, 

 and it was new to a great many others, that the pollen is the plant 

 itself and simply falls into the receptacle prepared for its growth 

 and performs its oflice there in the plant with which it comes in con- 

 tact. 



Prof. R. A. Emerson (Neb.) : I cannot say whether we can take 

 any stock in the pollination of apples. I have been engaged in hand 

 pollination as much as I could. I pollinated a great many varieties 

 with varying success. I tried it on a lot of apples, sour and sweet. 

 and I have never seen the first evidence that made me think it had 

 any influence on the fruit the first year. The difference in many 

 cases can be explained rather by poor pollination. They do not get 

 enough pollen or not at the right time and in the right way, and some 

 of the apples are rather undersized and uncolored because they did 

 not get as much sunlight. I think there may be a difference in this 

 way, there may be an affinity between one variety of apples and an- 

 other. In Wade's work he got a different shape in pears mainly be- 

 cause the seeds set well in certain cases and did not set well in others. 

 Where the seeds formed well the pear was enlarged giving it a bet- 

 ter pear shape. 



Mr. Lord : I saw no marked difference in the quality of the fruit 

 nor in the general size and appearance, except that the outside was 

 finely russetted. 



