PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 31 



more clearly do we recognize the intricacies of the problem and feel 

 that its solution is farther and farther removed. There are at work 

 so many influences with which we do not seem to get in touch, influences 

 at work in the season previous to blooming, influences perhaps of soil, 

 of atmosphere, of moisture, of temperature, of cultivation, and, perhaps, 

 hidden influences that affect the potency of pollen — all these imperfectly 

 understood agents, that may possibly be controlling factors, confuse us 

 in our attempts to work out practical methods of directing the fruit- 

 fulness of our trees. In despair we can only sit down and formulate 

 theories. 



We of the Willamette Valley, abandoning somewhat the highways 

 constructed by scientists, seem to get good results with impotent pollen- 

 producers like Spitzenbergs by applying a combined fertilizer of nitrate 

 of soda and muriate of potash in the spring just before bloom buds are 

 formed. [Since this paper was read a distinguished authority has sug- 

 gested that a superphosphate might give even better results than the first 

 mentioned fertilizer. — Ed.] This treatment seems to give trees a vigor 

 that will carry buds through the hot summer months without a loss of 

 fertility, and at blooming time the next spring we have flowers whose 

 pollen seems not greatly lacking in potency. This evidence is not at all 

 conclusive and we are not prepared to announce positive results, but 

 we believe that we can at least affect the potency of pollen to a great 

 degree by this method. It is not so much that these varieties of shy set- 

 ting fruits are always shy in the bearing of pollen as that their pollen 

 seems impotent, and it is the problem of the grower to correct that ten- 

 dency if possible. With the bare theory of self -sterility of these trees 

 (a theory founded on experiments conducted under false and unnatural 

 conditions) we have little patience. 



True, as before remarked, this theoretic solution of this problem is 

 ever before us. Practical men among close observers see. that there are 

 more important factors working through as yet unknown channels to 

 be reckoned with. These observers find that the factors that control the 

 receptivity of pistils, the potency of pollen, the virtue of the secre- 

 tions that bear such important relations to the setting of fruit, are as 

 elusive as gossamer on the summer-wind. There are no wizards of 

 Santa Rosa among the plain apple-growers of to-day. For this special 

 knowledge we are groping through an undiscovered realm. As in our 

 dreams, are shadowy forms before us, a moment shown and then with- 

 drawn. But as we catch these trembling glimpses of a truth beyond our 

 ken, we feel that perhaps we may be groping in the right direction and 

 hope the solution may not long be delayed. 



For how disappointing, as practical assistants, are trees set for pur- 

 poses of cross-pollination in orchards. Your pollinators will not bloom 

 in the years your sterile trees need them, or some untoward or unfore- 



