petals have \yevn cut, M just detcribed, will not 

 attract the beet, and would almost certainly not 

 be fertilixed at all if our experimental polleniu- 

 tion should for some reaion fail. 



Il -1 I Ml l.lillTING 1 ACTOB 



But even when rcathcted to the esientials, the 

 process takes time; and although tome thousands 

 of hand pollinations are done annually in my 

 garcfens and orchard, yet, as intimated, we try* 

 to leave the bulk of this work to the bees. Of 

 course, these otherwise admirable helpers make 

 DO distinction between different varieties of blos- 

 soms, passing freely from one tree to another, 

 regardless of the variety; but they usually con> 

 fine their attentions on any given day to trees of 

 a single species; that is to say, they do not 

 ordinarily pass from cherry blossoms to the 

 blossoms of the plum or almond, even if all are 

 in season. They seem to prefer not to mix their 

 sweets. So they do not distribute pollen to the 

 wrong flowers as often as might be supposed. 



Where pollen izing experiments are to be made 

 on a larger scale, I sometimes place a branch of 

 a cherry tree in full bloom among the branches 

 of the tree of another variety, with which 1 wish 

 to effect hybridization. The bees then transfer 

 the pollen from the borrowed limb to the flowers 



