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abundant many grow ers keep small _ api aries . 
Bees are not common in the cranberry region of Wisconsin, 
and experiments and observations by representatives of the Wisconsin 
Agricultural Experiment Station indicate that though they help in 
pollination they are not necessary in that State under normal con- 
ditions. The cranberry blossoms there seem to be practically self- 
fertile. After the flower bud opens ... the pistil grows past the 
anthers and may be fertilized then or later as the flower is jostled 
by the wind. Even in Wisconsin bees may be of great value in hasten- 
ing pollination, thus insuring un iformity in the time of setting and 
maturing the fruit. Without insect aid the pollina t ion is apt_ to 
extend over a long period and the fruit likel y to m ature unevenly . 
Cucumber 
Beattie, W. R. 
1942. Cucumber growing. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bui. 1563, 25 pp. 
pp. 12-13: Pollination , or the setting of fruit, on cucumber 
vines is dependent upon some outside agency such as bees . Two kinds 
of flowers are found on every fruiting cucumber plant — the male ones . 
which supply the pollen, and the female ones... which produce the 
cucumbers. They can be readily distinguished, as the female flower 
is borne on the outer end of the little cucumber. TTsually the male 
flowers appear in great abundance in advance of the female flowers, 
which leads to the erroneous notion that the cucumbers are failing 
to set fruit. Later, the female flowers appear, and fruit is formed. 
Cucumbers grown in the field are pollinated by either tame or wild 
bees from the neighborhood . Under favorable conditions, cucumbers 
grown in frames may be pollinated by natural agencies, but th e sash- 
cucumber growers of the Norfolk district provide hives of bees near 
their frames when the cucumbers are setting, in order to insure 
perfect pollination. Without proper pollination the cucumbers are 
deformed, or at least a considerable percentage of nubbins are pro- 
duced. In localities where bees are scarce it is advisable for the 
growers of cucumbers in fields to keep bees, in order to insure 
pollination . 
Gooseberry 
Hooper, C. H. 
1939. Hive bees in relation to commercial fruit production. Southeast. 
Agr. Col. Jour. 44: 103-108, illus. 
p. 106: There is an opinion that blossoms that have been 
pollinated resist frost better than those that have not been polli- 
nated ... In England a Cambridgeshire grower who had a large acreage 
of gooseberries and had hives of bees placed among them f in a year in 
which frost damaged his neighbours' crops, had a good crop which he 
attributed to his bees. 
