FRUIT BLOSSOMS. 20f 



DISCUSSION. 



President Underwood: The subject is now before you for 

 discussion. This paper have been very interesting, and I 

 hope the members will discuss it thoroughly. 



Mr. Allyn: It has bothered me a good deal of late to know 

 why we have such a bountiful bloom in plums, apples, etc., 

 and such a scarcity of fruit. This last year I noticed that the 

 trees bore this bloom very bountifully, and, yet, a great many 

 of them were very barren. I suppose the pollen is destroyed 

 by the wet weather. I would like to learn whether that is the 

 real reason. 



Mr. Brackett: The wet weather washes the pollen on to the 

 ground so that the wind does not carry it. 



Mr. Heideman : I believe, as I stated in my paper, that the 

 conditions were these; We had a few very bright days in 

 April that started the plum blossoms until they were almost 

 ready to open. Cold weather then set in. It was cold, chilly 

 and damp and, while the plums should have been in bloom 

 ordinarily as early as the 15th of May, the blossoms were held 

 back by lack of warmth and sunshine and did not bloom until 

 the 1st of June. Now, the bloom is a very delicate institution. 

 •Of course, in winter it is wrapped up in the bud and lies in a 

 dormant state, and can thus endure a great deal of hardship 

 and change of climate, but when it has been started and the 

 processes of assimilation have set in and the real chemical 

 work has begun, it is very easily injured. The weather this 

 spring was cloudy and rainy for a long time, and, of course, if 

 it continues cloudy and rainy for a long while the organs of 

 reproduction will be so weakened that it will be entirely out of 

 the question for them to perform their functions. 



Mr. Murray : My own observation was that on account of the 

 cold weather there was not as good a pollenization as there 

 should have been. The pollen that did form was largely 

 washed out by the enormous rainfall. 



Mr. Urie: Being a bee-keeper, I have observed that when 

 we have a good crop of fruit the weather is generally such 

 that the bees can visit the blossoms. When we have such a 

 year as last year, with such weather as we had, the bees can- 

 not visit the blooms. The result is generally a poor crop of 

 fruit. I believe that bees are the finest things that the horti- 

 culturists can have near their orchards. I have observed that 

 for the last thirty or forty years. In Illinois, where I came 



