416 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



The conditions must be favorable beyond 

 expectation when ten per cent of the 

 flowers set fruit. A correspondent asks 

 why more apples were borne on the 

 north side than on the south of his 

 trees in the summer of 1901. Taking the 

 bloom chart for 1901 and comparing the 

 directions of the wind during the days 

 when the trees were in bloom, it will be 

 seen that the wind held steadily south- 

 west, blowing from five to 20 miles per 

 hour. The question then arose as to 

 why the blossoms on the south side of 

 the tree were not fertilized by the wind 

 carrying pollen from the tree directly 

 south of it in the same row. if the wind 

 is an agent of pollination. The theory 

 was advanced at the time that perhaps 

 bees did most of the work of pollina- 

 tion and worked out of the wind. Later 

 experiments have gone to show that this 

 is largely true, though they do work in 

 the wind. During the blooming period 

 of Huntsman, when it was not blowing 

 a gale, the wind was south or east. To 

 find out how much truth there was in 

 the above theory, the bees were counted 

 on each side of the tree in a hasty way 

 so as to count as tew as possible twice. 

 During the time when Huntsman was in 

 full bloom, with an east wind and the 

 sun shining warmly, there were counted 

 20 bees on the west side and eight on 

 the east. Taking the same tree with a 

 wind blowing at a rate of about seven 

 or eight miles an hour from the south 

 and small 'choppy" clouds flying, there 

 were counted 16 bees on the north side 

 and five on the south. On April 30 

 Kinnaird was in full bloom and an east 

 wind was blowing at a rate of 10 or 12 

 miles an hour. The day was warm and 

 sunny and the bees were out in force. 

 Five bees were counted on the east side 

 and 10 on the west of one tree and on 

 another of the same variety four bees 

 were counted on the east side and 16 

 on the west. These figures cannot be 

 laid to the bees' preference to sunshine 

 or shade as they worked in the full sun- 

 shine in one case and in the shade on 

 another. There was not much difference 

 in the temperature for the different days. 



By watching the bees during the time 

 when the work of pollinating the flowers 

 was being carried on, it was noticed 

 that in every case the bees chose the 

 side of the tree most protected from the 

 wind. The honey bee was the principal 

 visitor, though other bees were noticed 

 to be at work. But two bumble bees 

 were noticed during the whole week that 

 the work was being carried on. Six 

 species of bees were noticed at one time 

 at one tree. Bees were noticed to visit 

 the same flower five or six times during 

 the course of 15 or 20 minutes, and it is 

 safe to say that each flower was visited 

 25 or 30 times during the day, and could 

 scarcely have escaped pollination from 

 this source. Many other insects were 

 seen to visit the flowers to eat the pollen, 

 to gather honey or to prey on other in- 

 sects. In any case they' may have, to 

 some extent, aided in pollination. The 

 greatest agent of pollination is undoubt- 

 edly the honey bee. though in its ab- 

 sence other species would carry on the 

 work to such an extent as to insure a 

 crop of apples were the weather favor- 

 able for the work of bees during the 

 blooming period. 



To ascertain the extent to which the 

 wind is an agent of pollination, micro- 

 scope slides were set in the orchard to 

 catch pollen. These slides were pre- 

 pared by smearing them with pure glyc- 

 erine. The slides were numbered and 

 the height and distances were recorded 

 for that number. Afterwards these slides 

 were taken in and examined with a 

 microscope to find how many pollen 

 grains had been caught. The days when 

 these slides were put in the orchard 

 were ideal for pollination. The sun was 

 shining and a great many anthers were 

 dehiscing. The wind was blowing at a 

 rate of about five or six miles an hour. 

 The slides set very near a full blooming 

 Rome Beauty were left four hours. Num- 

 ber one was set at a height of about six 

 feet and 20 feet away from the tree, but 

 one grain of pollen was found to adhere 

 to it: number two at eight feet high and 

 12 feet from the tree caught but one 

 pollen grain: number three at a height 



