78 TOMATO CULTURE 



air so that an abundance of it reaches each receptive 

 stigma. With less vigorous plants and on dark days 

 it is necessary to hand pollinate the flowers. This is 

 done by gathering the pollen by means of jarring the 

 plants, so that it falls into a watch crystal or other re- 

 ceptacle secured at the end of a wand, and then press- 

 ing the projecting pistils of other flowers into it so 

 that they may become covered with the pollen. 



Some growers transfer the pollen with a camel's- 

 hair-brush ; others by pulling off the corolla and ad- 

 hering anthers and rubbing them over the stigma of 

 other flowers. Fruit rarely follows flowers that are 

 not pollinated, and if it is incomplete the fruit will 

 be unsymmetrical and imperfectly developed. As to- 

 mato flowers secrete but very little, if any, honey and 

 are not attractive to insects, it is of no advantage to 

 confine a hive of bees in the tomato house in the way 

 which is so useful in one where cucumbers or melons 

 are growing. 



