366 Report OF THE HorvTIcCULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF THE / 
In addition to these experiments a study of grape pollen was 
carried on in the laboratory in 1902, by Professor N. O. Booth. 
The results will appear in Bulletin No. 224. 
I. POTENCY OF THE POLLEN OF SELF-STERILE 
GRAPES. 
LOCATION OF EXPERIMENTS. 
Most of the tests here reported were carried on in the vine- 
yard of Mr. E. C. Gillett, Penn Yan, N. Y. It is a pleasure to 
acknowledge Mr. Gillett’s uniform courtesy and cordial co-op- 
eration in this work. A few of the tests were made on vines in 
the Experiment Station vineyards. 
METHODS OF WORK. 
In all cases the vines selected for the tests were apparently 
in good productive condition. They were similarly treated so 
far as spraying to prevent the attacks of fungous diseases was 
concerned; they were also similarly pruned, trained and culti- 
vated. The plan which was followed was to castrate certain 
self-fertile varieties before their blossoms opened, and then to 
apply to them the pollen taken from certain self-sterile or 
imperfectly self-fertile sorts. In order to prevent the access of 
other pollen than that desired, the clusters to be pollinated were 
covered with manilla paper bags! as soon as they were castrated, 
and thereafter kept thus covered except during the operation 
of cross-pollinating them. The clusters selected to supply the 
pollen for the experiment were likewise bagged before blooming 
to prevent admixture of foreign pollen. They were kept in these 
bags till used. 
Castration.— The metheds of operating in castrating the buds 
were varied according to the condition of the buds when the 
work was performed. When the operation is delayed till the 
buds are opening or about to open there is danger that some 
stigmas may accidentally become self-pollinated during the 
1'The bagging was done according to the method shown in Bulletin No. 157:401; also in 
Annual Report of this Station for 1898 :521. 
