1912. 
666 
Ruralisms 
ARTIFICIAL POLLINATION OF PECANS. 
Interest in the pecan industry is not 
only growing steadily in the Gulf and 
South Atlantic States, but is engaging 
the attention of progressive horticul¬ 
turists well to northward of what is 
generally termed the cotton belt. Hardy 
varieties of size and quality rendering 
them worthy of classification with the 
best Southern nuts, have been found irj 
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and other 
localities of the same latitude. Some of 
the Northern growers are also making 
experiments in crossing the better varie¬ 
ties on each other, and also in hybridiz¬ 
ing the pecan on hickory and walnut. 
While the catalogues of nut nursery¬ 
men give lists of standard oecans suit- 
THE RT_JR_A.I> NEW.YORKEa 
SEPARATING CHAFF FROM POLLEN. 
Fig. 199. 
able for present commercial and family 
uses, yet it is a fact that no variety pos¬ 
sesses all the desirable qualities. North¬ 
ern growers are especially interested in 
getting more hardy sorts of earlier ma¬ 
turity, suited to still higher latitudes. 
Some again wish to inject into the pe¬ 
can the rich flavor of the first class 
hickorynut. To reach these ends some 
of the older nut-growers, both North 
and South, have resorted to cross-pol¬ 
lination of their favorite varieties so as 
to weed out faults and emphasize good 
points, until the nearest approach is 
made to what each considers an ideal 
pecan. Along with all this is the quest 
for desirable hybrids by the inter-cross¬ 
ing of species, hence the suggestions 
which follow. 
Male and Female Flowers. —Be¬ 
ginners in nut-growing know that 
the staminate or male flowers of nut 
trees grow separately from the pistil¬ 
late or female flowers. The same is 
true as to the oaks, for the acorn is but 
another form of nut. The male flowers 
of these trees hang in tassels from wood 
of last year’s growth. These tassels 
are called catkins, but in my judgment 
the term “pendels” would be more ap¬ 
propriate. Some days after the male 
flowers have appeared, the female or 
bearing blooms may be found in little 
clusters on new and tender growth of 
the present or current season. The male 
flowers, hanging like a fringe, are 
plainly to be seen. Not so with -bearing 
flowers; they are not larger than grains 
of wheat, and many otherwise observant 
persons have never noticed them. The 
two sexes of flowers usually appear on 
the same tree, but not always. A 
APPLYING THE POLLEN. Fig. 300. 
Frotscher pecan in my garden that has 
made an excellent beginning as a pro¬ 
ducer has never shown a male flower, 
and this leaves its bearing flowers de¬ 
pendent upon other trees for pollina¬ 
tion. A Japan walnut also fails to pro¬ 
duce male flowers, and there being no 
other walnuts nearby flowering at the 
same time, its abundant setting of fe¬ 
male flowers fall away without fruiting. 
Some of our wild pecan trees produce 
no bearing blooms, consequently are 
barren. When male flowers have ma¬ 
tured, minute, yellow granules called 
pollen fall from them and are carried 
by the winds to female flowers, which 
are thus fertilized and enabled to pro¬ 
duce nuts. When the female flowers 
have matured they open at the outer 
ends and are ready for the pollen either 
naturally or artificially applied. I have 
never seen any pollen-bearing insect vis¬ 
iting pecan blooms. 
Preparing for Cross-Pollination.— 
One wishing to experiment in this 
way may first select a tree from 
which he wishes to gather pollen. 
When male flowers appear, the tree may 
be visited every day and the hand 
brushed lightly against the tassels. As 
soon as maturity begins, a gentle touch 
wifi cause pollen to fall from them. It 
is time then to pull off as many tassels 
as may be desired to supply the amount 
of pollen wanted, and lay them on a 
sheet of paper where the sun may shine 
on them, but where the wind may not 
reach them. The pollen is very light 
and the least puff of air will send it 
flying. In three or four days these 
flowers will be fully matured. They 
may then be shaken and the pollen as 
well as a quantity of chaff will fall on 
the sheet of paper. After throwing the 
shaken flowers aside, the sheet of paper 
may be folded over the pollen so as to 
form a crease in the middle. It may 
then be laid upon a desk or table and 
one end of the sheet raised by the left 
hand as shown in Fig. 199. Then by 
gently tapping the lower end of the 
paper, the chaff will begin to rise from 
the pollen and make its way downward. 
The pollen will also move downward, 
but more slowly and it may be tilted 
back to the upper end of the crease and 
the operation repeated until free from 
chaff. 
Applying Pollen.— When pollen has 
been cleaned in the manner de¬ 
scribed, it may be put into an empty 
canister formerly containing talcum 
powder. Some of these canisters are 
made with a sliding cap on the top so 
as to graduate the size of the openings, 
and control the flow of talcum. This 
arrangement answers equally well for 
pollen, which is still finer than talcum 
and the amount applied can be regu¬ 
lated to a nicety. These empty canis¬ 
ters may be found in almost any home 
where there are young people—from 
baby to grown-ups. With this equip¬ 
ment, the next thing is to go to your 
female flowers and see if they have 
opened up properly. By previous watch 
over them, it will not be difficult to 
know when they are in receptive condi¬ 
tion. The pollen should not be applied 
until the flowers are ready for it or 
they may be lost. Injurious effects of 
premature pollination are the subject 
of a government bulletin. Before at¬ 
tempting the artificial pollination of pe¬ 
can flowers, most operators remove all 
male flowers from the twigs as soon as 
clusters of bearing flowers appear. 
These clusters, together with the leaves 
growing near them, are then covered 
with large paper bags, tied or pinned 
close to the branches so as to exclude 
pollen from the outside. The flowers 
in the sacks will open their mouths in 
a few days. You are ready then to get 
your canister and apply the pollen as 
shown in Fig. 200. After this, replace 
the paper bag until the pollinated flowers 
change color, when it may be removed. 
A single application proved sufficient 
on a few clusters last season, but in 
cases where all the flowers in a cluster 
do not mature at the same time other 
applications would be necessary. Where 
one can visit flowers every day while 
they are in a receptive condition and 
practically fill their mouths with pollen 
by one or two shakes of the canister, 
it seems to me that sacking the flowers 
is unnecessary. With such an abund¬ 
ance of pollen artificially applied, it 
would appear difficult for that from 
other sources to get in its work; but I 
am not yet prepared to speak advisedly 
on this point. It would at least be a 
step forward to escape the drudgery of 
the sacking process. In some of my 
work this has been avoided, the experi¬ 
ments being with belated flowers that 
appeared after all male flowers had 
fallen from neighboring trees. These 
clusters were not covered at all, as there 
was no known source from which pollen 
could come naturally. To test the mat¬ 
ter, some of these belated clusters were 
not treated and none of them fruited. 
On the other hand, those artificially pol¬ 
linated from the canister set clusters 
averaging more nuts than other clusters 
naturally pollinated on the same trees. 
My object in working on these late-ma¬ 
turing pistillate flowers is to produce, 
if I can, a self-pollinating tree flowering 
later than any other tree in the country 
round about. Such a tree ought to give 
us seed-nuts that will produce seedlings 
that will “come true.” I may not live 
to get this result, but it is easily pos¬ 
sible that some one already has just 
such pecan trees without knowing it. 
The methods of preparing and applying 
pollen as above outlined are the simplest 
and easiest within my knowledge and 
should lessen the labor of cross-breeding 
nut-trees. Charles l. edwards. 
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