POLLINATION TO FRUIT PRESERVATION. 97 



66. Some male trees produce more pollen and some come 

 Selection of male earlier into flower than others. In propagating 



male trees, to be used to pollinate female trees 

 whose fruits are to be sold for consumption, off-shoots should be 

 taken from trees which produce much pollen, and which come 

 into flower at or a little before the time that the females are in 

 flower. It is most convenient if males can be propagated, which 

 come into flower in succession throughout the female flowering 

 season. If the trees produce a plentiful supply of pollen in the 

 proper season, other qualities of the male tree selected are mostly 

 unimportant if rearing of date trees from seedlings is not 

 undertaken, as the characters of the male are not transmitted 

 to the edible part of the fruit formed as the immediate result 

 of pollination. If new varieties of dates are to be bred, however, 

 male trees should be used which have been reared from seeds got 

 from good varieties of trees, and which have had good male and 

 female ancestors as the seeds of those fruits when sown will give 

 rise to plants most of which will show some of the characters of 

 the male used (see also pages 94 and 95, paras. 61 and 62). 



67. Where pollination is done by natural agencies, i.e., 



where the pollen is carried from the pollen sacs 



Percentage of 



males required for of the male tree to the carpels oi the female 



natural pollination. _ _ , 



by wind, insects and other agencies not con- 

 trolled by the farmer, about 50 per cent, of the date plantation 

 should be male trees and these should be well mixed with the 

 female trees to obtain the best results. Cases are on record in 

 which date pollen is believed to have been carried many miles 

 by natural agencies and female trees fertilised by it, but where 

 the distances between the male and female trees are great, good 

 results could only be expected when the winds are in a direction 

 which will carry the pollen from the male to the female trees, 

 the air is not too humid, etc., at flowering time. 



68. By what date-growers term " hand pollinating " date 

 Advantages of trees, instead of allowing them to be wind-polli- 

 tion." nated, the following advantages will be had : 



(1) Fertilisation will be more certain. 



M, DP 7 



