Pollination 133 



Desirable points in a pollinizer. 



The pollinizer should be, first of all, a valuable com- 

 mercial variety. Many standard market varieties are 

 good pollinizers. The pollinizer should produce an abun- 

 dant supply of pollen, even under trying weather conditions, 

 and at the right time to fertilize the pistillate blossoms. 

 Some pistillate varieties have a longer blossoming season 

 than staminate sorts ; if but one pollinizer is used, some 

 of the early or late blossoms will not be fertilized. The 

 benefit from using two varieties as pollinizers, one blos- 

 soming somewhat earlier than the other, was shown in 

 the experiments of E. S. Goff:^ "When Warfield was 

 pollinated with Michel, an early bloomer, 68.8 per cent 

 of the total crop was gathered in the first six pickings. 

 When Warfield was pollinated with Parker Earle, a late 

 bloomer, 56.3 per cent of the total crop was gathered in 

 the first six pickings." In some cases it is desirable to 

 select a pollinizer that ripens at the same time as the 

 pistillate. There is little or no connection between earli- 

 ness in blooming and earliness in ripening. Local notes 

 on the blooming periods of varieties are necessary. Vari- 

 eties that blossom together in one locality usually do in 

 another, but not always. 



The "mating" of varieties. 



With few, if any, exceptions, varieties blossoming at 

 the same time will fertilize each other. Much has been 

 said about the proper "mating" of varieties. In so far 

 as this term refers to the use of varieties that will furnish 

 pollen for all the blossoms of the pistillate sort, early 

 and late, it is well applied ; but if used to imply a superi- 

 ority of one pollinizer over another in other respects, it is 



» Rept. Wis. Exp. Sta., 1897, p. 28. 



