120 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 toimprove. 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. 
