65 



Mr. R. T. Morrison, of Messrs. E. Morrison and Sons, Warkworth, well- 

 known horticulturists, supply the following interesting note regarding cross- 

 pollinating experiments which have been carried out at their orchards : — 



Three seasons ago a small pear-tree was selected for operations. When, 

 the blossom-buds were in the right condition— namely, when the petals of 

 a large proportion of the blossoms wore almost ready to break open — the 

 blossoms and blossom-buds were thinned out to, roughly speaking, about 

 one-sixth of what the tree originally held, leaving only such as would open 

 into full flower in about a day or two. These petals (all being of unopened 

 blossoms), together with stamens and in some instances calyx also, were 

 then removed, and the tree was covered with butter-cloth. In a few days 

 pollen of another variety of pear was administered to the stigmas, being 

 placed there by hand and not shaken on, and the tree was again left covered 

 with butter-cloth. This pear-tree set and matured a large crop of fruit — 

 in fact, too large — while other trees of the same variety alongside set prac- 

 tically nothing. 



Two seasons later (that is in 1905) this same tree was treated in the 

 same manner, except that blossoms were thinned down to about one-tenth ; 

 butter-cloth or other covering was not used ; and pollen from another 

 variety (that is a different variety from that from which pollen was taken 

 for the previous experiment) was made use of. Though no coveting was 

 used it would appear that the bees would not be likely to much visit a tree 

 from which the petals had been entirel} removed. Still, almost every 

 blossom that was treated seemed to set, and the result was a crop much tco 

 heavy. Other trees of the same variety alongside had a fair crop, but not 

 nearly so heavy as this one. 



Other experiments with various fruits have been carried out at difierent 

 times with varying success. The above two instances are perhaps the most 

 striking. 



I may mention that bees are very busy agents ir our orchards during 

 the blossoming season, when the weather is fine enough. Still, it would 

 be too much to expect that the bees would always be able to carry the right 

 pollen to the right trees at the right time. But no doubt the bees would 

 be even of much more value in the orchard than they are at present if we 

 had the knowledge as to which varieties of a fruit were best for fertilising 

 other varieties, and were to lay off our orchards in such a way as to give 

 the bees the best opportunity of carrying pollen from one variety to the 

 other. 



Mr. Morrieon has since carried out a further series of experiments, and 

 for the purpose of insuring cross-fertilisation where it had partially failed 

 before, has grafted on some of his fruit-trees scions of particular varieties 

 which will bear suitable pollen for the purpose. 



An eminent authority, when speaking of the fertilisation of apple- 

 blossoms, said, — 



The apple is called by botanists a pseudo-syncarpous fruit, because it 

 may be regarded as five fruits gathered into a unit by an envrlnpe formed 

 by a development of the calyx. If an apple be cut across we see five com- 

 partments or dissepiments in the core (see Fig. B), each one of which should 

 contain pips or seeds. The bloom which preceded the fruit had five stigmas 

 (see Fig. A), three of which are shown in section, and each one of which com- 

 3— Bee-culture. 



