1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



217 



PLATE VII.— FIG. 

 FIG. 2. 



1. MALFORMATION, CAUSED BY CUTTING SEPALS WHEN EMASCULATING. 

 NORMAL APPLE, AS A RESULT OF ALLOWING SEPALS TO REMAIN. 



COLLECTING POLLEN. 



One of the greatest problems the plant- 

 breeder has to meet is the collecting of an 

 adequate supply of pollen for work on a 

 large scale. It is evident that, where many 

 of our leading varieties blossom together, 

 pollen must be gathered in sufficient quanti- 

 ties beforehand, if extensive experiments in 

 cross-pollination are to be carried on. 



Since this is the case, means must be pro- 

 vided by which the blossoms can be forced. 

 To accomplish this, a forcing-house is very 

 desirable, although for work on a small scale 

 any house having quite a few windows on 

 the south side would answer the purpose. 



Selecting Tiv/g's.— Small twigs, from ten to 

 twenty inches in length, having from three 

 to six clusters of blossoms, are gathered 

 from the variety which is to be used as a 

 pollenizer, and taken to the forcing-house. 

 First, all the open blossoms are removed 

 from the twigs, which are then placed in 

 jars of water and properly labeled, then cov- 

 ered with hoods so as to prevent the trans- 

 fer of pollen by insects. 



Usually the twigs are placed in the forcing- 

 house a week or two before the trees come 

 into blossom. If the weather is good the 

 blossoms will open in three or four days. If, 

 however, it is desired to obtain quicker re- 

 sults, it can very easily be accomplished by 

 using warm water in place of cold. By split- 



ting the stems of the different twigs the 

 blossoms can be forced open fro m three to 

 four hours earlier. In the experi ments car- 

 ried on, a gain of from one to two days was 

 reahzed by the use of warm water and the 

 splitting of stems. 



After the anthers dehisce and th e pollen 

 becomes ripe, a small vial properly labeled, 

 is used to collect the pollen. By removing 

 the hoods the pollen can be very e asily dust- 

 ed into the vials with the aid of s mall cam- 

 el's-hair brushes. Plate IX shows the vial, 

 properly labeled and plugged with cotton, 

 which is used by the writers to carry the 

 pollen to the orchard. In these vials the 

 pollen will keep until ready for use, if suffi- 

 ciently dried. If it is not dried enough, fer- 

 mentation will set in quite easily. Very 

 gratifying results have been obtained by 

 collecting the pollen in this manner. At the 

 present time it is not known just how long 

 pollen can be kept before losing its viability. 

 At this station good results have been re- 

 ceived from pollen that had been gathered 

 three weeks. 



One of the simplest ways of procuring pol- 

 len is to cover with paper sacks branches 

 that are nearly in flower, and the ripened 

 anthers from these blossoms can be used for 

 pollination purposes. Another method is to 

 put in a warm room unripe anthers from 

 flowers about to open. In a few hours the 



