538 Report oF THE HorrTicuLTURIST OF THE 
IS THE METHOD OF TESTING FOR SELF-FERTILITY 
BY COVERING THE CLUSTERS A RELIABLE ONE? 
The reliability of the method of testing the self-fertility of a 
variety by covering its blossoms during the blooming period and 
thus excluding pollen from other flowers, has been questioned by 
some on the ground that the conditions within the covering may 
be very different from those outside and especially that the ex- 
clusion of winds and insects prevents pollination.’ These ob- 
jections will be considered here only so far as they concern the 
work with grapes. 
Perhaps the best reply which can now be offered to these ob- 
jections is the statement that out of 169 cultivated varieties of the 
grape which have been tested here by this method 103 produce on 
the average marketable clusters when the blossoms are covered. 
As one illustration out of many that might be given on this point, 
the record of Diamond is presented. In 1892, 2 clusters of this 
variety in one of the Station vineyards were bagged during the 
entire blossoming period. Two perfect clusters of fruit developed. 
In 1897, 15 clusters of the same variety were likewise covered in a 
vineyard near Penn Yan and 18 clusters in a vineyard near Branch- 
port. Each covered cluster developed into a perfect cluster of 
fruit. Plate LIT from a photograph of self-sterilized clusters of 
Duchess and Diamond, covered during the blooming period ac- 
cording to the method under discussion, shows how perfectly the 
covered clusters of self-fertile varieties may develop. Even with 
those varieties which show some variableness in the degree of self- 
fertility under differences of environment, the results with the 
same variety have generally been quite similar in the different 
tests. 3 
Attention should be called to the fact that every one of the 103 
self-fertile varieties cited above has flowers with long stamens. 
If these varieties were able to become successfully self-pollinated 

1 Proc, Amer. Pom. Soc., 1897: 94. See also Fletcher, S. W. Reprint from 
Proc. N. J. State Hort. Soc., 1899: 12-14. 
