POLLINA TION IN ORCHARDS. 



367 



crosses which were made in 1899 with this 

 particular point in view, not one showed any 

 chang-e which could be positively attributed 

 to the influence of pollen. Even the concen- 

 trated sweetness of Seckel made no impres- 

 sion on the poor quality of KiefFer ; nor 

 were there any constant differences in color, 

 shape or season of ripening in any of the 

 other crosses. Nearly everybody who has 

 crossed varieties of orchard fruits has had a 

 similar experience. 



Most of the evidence supporting the theory 

 that there is an immediate influence of pollen 



sometimes exerted. But it is certainly much 

 less frequent than is commonly supposed. 



The Distribution' of the Pollivizers. 



Having- selected a pollinizer with reference 

 to simultaneous bloomingand mutual affinity, 

 the fruit-grower now wishes to know how 

 many trees will be necessary to pollinate 

 the self-sterile variety. There are three 

 things to be considered here : The ability 

 of the pollinizer to produce pollen, its market 

 value and the class of fruit to which the self- 

 sterile variety belongs. 



Fig. 1903 — Abundance. From Abundance Pollen Above, From Grand Duke 

 Pollen Below. Some Benefit From Cross-Pollination. 



in the crosses of fruits comes from observa- 

 tion ; most of the evidence against it comes 

 from experiment. The observer, however 

 careful, is likely to jump at conclusions ; the 

 experimenter tries to give due weight to 

 every influence which might bear on the 

 problem. Since many observers and a few 

 experimenters have found what seems to be 

 an immediate influence of pollen on the fruit, 

 we cannot doubt but that this influence is 



Varieties diff"er in the amount of pollen 

 which they produce, and the pollen produc- 

 tion of the same variety is also greatly 

 modified by differences in locality and sea- 

 son. Other things being equal, the variety 

 which produces pollen freely could be used 

 more sparingly in a block of self-sterile 

 trees than one of scanty pollen production. 

 Little comparative observation has been 

 made on this point as yet ; but as a matter 



