I20 MODERN STRAWBERRY GROWING 



bee who Is after nectar, but more often 

 doing an immense amount of good in 

 knocking the pollen from off the anthers 

 on to the pistils, or coating parts of their 

 bodies with pollen which is again deposited 

 in the next flower or some others visited by 

 the insect, thus bringing about proper polli- 

 nation and fruitfulness of the plant. 



The winds help in knocking off the pollen 

 and carrying it to other blossoms. Both of 

 these agencies are nature's way of aiding 

 either cross or self pollinating by the flowers 

 and would be called the process of natural 

 breeding. 



Providing one of the fruits which was 

 matured this way was used to produce new 

 plants from the seeds on the outside of the 

 berry, it would be practically impossible 

 to tell more than one parent of the resultant 

 offspring. This being the case, the new 

 plant would have just as much tendency 

 to degenerate as it would to improve. Man 

 has stepped in and, by a simple process, and 

 by his knowledge of the parents of the 

 offspring, and knowing just which parents 

 will breed together the best, has eliminated 

 much of the chance In breeding. 



