1894 



GLEANINGS IN IJEE CULTURE. 



449 



lents to make the above a demonstrated fact, 

 'he practical conclusion is : Mix varieties in 

 lantiiig — that is, do not set more than one or 

 vo rows of the same variety side by side, but 

 'lix in other varieties, and put those side by 

 ide that blossom at the same time. Also have, 

 ithin a mile of every large orchard, a good 

 jpiary. Cold wet weather prevents fruiting, 

 lainly by keeping bees away. ]n California 

 lie rains are rarely if ever so continuous as to 

 Irevent a crop, so he who observes the two sug- 

 astions offered above will almost certainly 

 lave fruit each year. 



I Prof. Bailey, the very able horticulturist of 

 [ornell University, writes: " Uees are much 

 I ore efficient agents of pollenation than wind, 

 li our fruits; and their absence is always dcle- 

 frfoHN." 



[The Division of Vegetable Pathology, of the 

 (epartment of Agriculture, has just issued a 

 I ost valuable bulletin on " Pollenation of Pear- 

 L)wers," by Norton B. Waite. Mr. VVaite says: 

 yincidental mention has been made of insect- 

 isitors. We should not proceed without laying 

 [me stress upon ihe importance of these visits, 

 he common honey-bee is the most regular, im- 

 i)rtant, and abundant visitor, and probably 

 hes more good than any other species." He 

 ' ys, further, that cool or rainy weather inter- 

 U'es sei'iously with insect-visits. Many varie- 

 3S (33 out of 364 of those he experimented 

 iith), says Mr. Waite, require cross-pollena- 

 lan; and the pollen must be from a different 

 jirii'ty. Bees and other insects are the agents 

 \ the transportation of pollen. In summing 

 p, Mr. Waite says— and this from crucial deci- 

 :'ve experiments: "' Plant mixed orchards, or, at 

 ,ast, avoid planting solid blocks of one variety, 

 .e sure that there are sufficient bees in the 

 .Mghborhood to visit the blossoms properly, 

 'hen feasible, endeavor to favor insect-vi>-its 

 V selecting sheltered situations, or by planting 

 indbreaks." 



This all seems pretty good. When the horti- 

 ilturists talk this way we may rest assured 

 lal the warfare against bees is nearly over. 

 cry soon the fruit-growers will appreciate the 

 )Ocl work of the honey-bee, and will uige bee- 

 'f|)i'is to locate right among their fruit-trees. 

 his is what we are coming to, and that very 

 leedily. 

 Clareraont, Cal. 



I Well done, friend Cook. You have already, 

 >i)ur California home, furnished perhaps the 

 est positive evidence in regard to the value of 

 ■e- lor fruit that has yet been given; and 

 uir quotation from Mr. Waite reminds me of 

 mctiiing I saw recently, I think in the Rural 

 en- -Y(jrker. Somebody made a specially of 

 •owing Bartletl pears, and nothing else, and 

 i finally planted an immense orchard all in 

 anletts; but to his surprise this great orchard 

 »uld not be made to produce pears as did his 

 rmer experiments on a smaller scale. A re- 

 arkable thing, however, soon became evident: 

 he trees around the outside of the orchard bore 



tolerable crops; and one more strange circum- 

 stance let out the secret of the trouble. The 

 nurseryman who filled the order for the large 

 number of Barllett pear-trees, by mistake got 

 in a few trees of some other kind of pears 

 These were scattered through the orchard; but 

 whenwer such a tree was found, the Bartletts 

 all around it bore crops of fruit. It was an ex- 

 pensive lesson; but the fact stood out so plain 

 and clear that there was no gainsaying it; and 

 just now we are beginning to discover ' that 

 fruit-trees, at least to a cf^rtain extent, are like 

 strawberries— there are perfect and imperfect 

 varieties. These need to be near each other in 

 order to secure the best results. No mention 

 was made of bees in writing up this fact; but 

 the truth brought out has a very close bearing 

 on this whole matter. Conu', to think of it, the 

 experience of almost all of us is also full of 

 facts bearing on this subject. During the past 

 winter I had a large fine tomato-plant in the 

 middle of the greenhouse, which plant has been 

 in bloom continuously since December. Not a 

 tomato has set. Of course. I might have fussed 

 with liand pollenation; but this is rather out 

 of my line, and I have been too busy to attend 

 to it. A few days ago I moved the large plant 

 out into the open air, and now it begins to set 

 ful'y-J A. I. R. 



SOMETHING FROM OUR EXPERIMENT STATION 

 IN REGARD TO FERTILIZATION OF STRAW- 

 BERRIES, TOMATOES, ETC. 

 By E. C. Green. 



Friend Root:— I notice in Gleanings of May 

 1st that you speak of raising strawberries un- 

 der glass. We have been trying to do the same 

 thing for the past five years, but without very 

 great success; but I have noticed this to be 

 true, that, when we had a small number of 

 plants, they did well; but when we had a large 

 number they did not do as well. This, I think, 

 was due to their not being properly fertilized. 



I remember one of the best crops we ever 

 raised was in an old lean-to greenhouse heated 

 with a flue. We thought that, if such a good 

 crop could be raised in such a poor greenhouse, 

 in our new house we could do much better. So 

 the next winter we put out quite a large num- 

 ber; but the results were almost a failure. 



The past winter I raised as nice strawberries 

 as I ever saw grown out of doors; but I went 

 over them carefully every day with a carael's- 

 hair brush, and carried the pollen from one to 

 the other. I think you are as fortunately situ- 

 ated for raising strawberries in the winter as 

 you are for heat, if you grow them when the 

 sash can be taken off and the bees get a chance 

 to work at them; but if they have to be covered 

 closely during the flowering period, to protect 

 them, they will not do as well. 



I was much interested in the discussion in 

 Gleanings the past winter on the good that 

 bees do the fruit, and thought of adding my 

 experience; but it seemed as if there was an 

 extra abundance of evidence to prove that they 

 are useful, and very little to prove they are not. 



You may think that, if the perfect-flowering 

 strawberries are used, all \.ill be well if the 

 blossoms are not worked with; but I believe 



