36 How TO MAKE GRAPE CULTURE PROFITABLE IN CALIFORNIA 



they cannot bear, but they are certainly of value or Nature would 

 not have developed them. Nature's tendency in its creative de- 

 signs for the reproduction of improved forms is apparent and so it 

 makes cross-pollenation imperative. Generally the most vigorous 

 and enduring offspring is produced by crossing vines with Distillate 

 or hermaphrodite flowers with some which have staminate flowers. 



How to Hybridize if Parent Vines Bloom at the Same Time. 



This is easiest, if the mother vine has weak recurved stamens. 

 The selected mother vine should be in the best of condition, re- 

 ceive good care and be irrigated several times during the latter part 

 of the summer. As soon as the flower clusters appear and if there 

 are very many of them, some should be cut off, so the vine is not 

 overburdened. The vine should be noticed daily, until some of the 

 buds on the flower-clusters begin to open. These should be clipped 

 off then and each cluster, which is to be operated on, enclosed in a 

 small sack of tissue paper or close-meshed gauze, so insects cannot 

 enter. The next day at about 10 a. m., if the weather is warm and 

 fair, visit the vine and if some flowers on the enclosed clusters have 

 opened, brush over these several times with a newly opened flower- 

 cluster, taken from the vine which is intended as male parent, 

 knocking off flower-caps and spilling pollen profusely all over the 

 cluster. If clusters used for pollenating are plenty, enclose one of 

 them in the sack, letting it rest on the cluster to be pollenated until 

 the next day, when with fresh clusters the operation is repeated. 

 Every day the vine must be visited, the newly opened flowers pol- 

 lenated until all the flowers have been operated on. If the clusters 

 are very large and close, some of the flowers should be cut out, so 

 the young grapes are not overcrowded. All the seeds borne by 

 the sacked clusters will be crossed or hybridized by the variety used 

 as male parent. 



If this latter vine is growing right next to the vine with reflexed 

 stamens, all that is necessary is to train two arms, one of each vine, 

 along each other, and then enclose them with a light sheet of cloth 

 to keep out insects. Daily shake the arm of the pollenating vine, 

 which should be trained above the other, so pollen is spilled all over 

 the flower-clusters of the pistillate vine. 



If the mother vine is a variety with hermaphrodite flowers, the 

 operation becomes more difficult. In this case at commencement of 

 flowering time all the open flowers of the cluster to be operated on, 

 are clipped off and then all caps just about ready to shed, are de- 

 tached with the point of a needle or pin, the anthers all hooked off 

 with a tiny hook, made by bending the point of a pin back at an 

 acute angle. The flowers thus prepared are then pollenated as 

 previously described. Great care should be taken to prevent pollen- 

 ation of the flowers by the pollen of their own anthers. For this 

 reason the vine must be visited every day at 9 or 10 a.m., and the 

 operation repeated as described. If any flowers are found opened, 

 it is best to clip them off, as it is also well to thin out some of the 

 buds on very large or close clusters. This facilitates the work and 

 causes the remaining ones to set with greater certainty. 



