Page 248

 
WISCONSIN  HORTICULTURE 
Are Bees Necessary For 
           Cranberry Pollenization? 
A T the annual meeting of the 
     Wisconsin Cranberry Grow- 
 ers Association, held at Wiscon- 
 sin Rapids, December 19, the 
 question of pollenization of cran- 
 b e r r i e s was discussed. Some 
 growers have been paying bee- 
 keepers to bring in bees for pol- 
 lenization. Others feel that there 
 are enough wild bees in the 
 neighborhood, while still others 
 are uncertain as to whether bees 
 are necessary. The opinion was 
 expressed that cranberries are 
 self-pollenizing. In order to ob- 
 tain more information on the 
 subject the editor wrote to Mr. 
 H. J. Franklin, in charge of 
 Cranberry Research at the Cran- 
 berry Experiment Station, East 
 Wareham, Mass., who has been 
 working  with  cranberries for 
 many years. The following is his 
 reply: 
   Bees Important Pollenizing 
             Agent 
  "I do not believe that the wind 
  is any great factor in cranberry 
  pollenization. Neither do I be- 
lieve that cranberries are largely 
self-fertile. To give you a clear 
picture of the situation as we see 
it would require a long discus- 
sion, which I am not prepared to 
give you just now. You will un- 
derstand, of course, that how- 
ever carefully work may have 
been done in the past, it is pos- 
sible that a new approach, to any 
subject may unearth new infor- 
mation, and anyone who claims 
that he has proved beyond any 
possible doubt any of the things 
mentioned is taking long chances. 
  "I am    simply giving  what 
seems to be the situation from 
our present knowledge and ex- 
perience. I will say, however, 
that things that are true in one 
part of the country may not be 
true in another part. 
   "I have a strong impression 
 that there are considerably less 
 wild bees in the Wisconsin cran- 
 berry district than there are in 
 our Eastern districts. I know that 
 when I have been there I have 
 been impressed by the apparent 
 scarcity of bumble bees. 
   "I think I should say before 
 closing that it is possible that 
 other insects besides bees, par- 
 ticularly Syrphus flies, may (1o 
 this work. They (to pollenize 
 plants to some extent, but we. 
 have not studied them in relation 
 to cranberry pollenization yet." 
        SPRAY INJURY 
Q UESTION. We have trouble 
     with lime sulphur burning 
or stunting the leaves on lower 
branches of sheltered trees. Can 
this be avoided by only spraying 
the tops and chancing that the 
drift will be sufficient cover for 
the lower branches? The damage 
has been extensive, A.M., Waldo. 
  Answer: Weak trees or branch- 
es and slow drying of the spray 
make for lime-sulphur injury. 
Both of these factors probably 
play a part in the injury you men- 
tion. Anything you can do to in- 
crease the vigor of these lower 
branches and open them tip to 
freer circulation of air should 
lessen the injury. 
  It would be desirable to avoid 
applying a hard, driving spray. 
It would not be safe to rely on 
the drift from spraying the tops 
to protect the lower branches. If 
the injury is extensive enough to 
warrant it, the lower parts of the 
trees could be sprayed with a 
milder fungicide. If scab is suf- 
ficiently under control in the or- 
chard it is possible that a milder 
fungicide could be used success- 
fully for the entire trees. 
IS McINTOSH OVERPLANTED 
Q UESTION: Prices of Mcln- 
     tosh are now below that of 
some other varieties. Does that 
indicate that the McIntosh vari- 
ety is being overplanted? 
  Grower: The best answer is to 
try to sell McIntosh this year 
(1939). The Federal Surplus Com- 
modities Corporation is taking 
three hundred cars a week out of 
western New York in order to 
move these McIntosh. 
  Mr. Vedder: I think you fel- 
lows have the biggest case of jit- 
ters I know of. Last year you 
thought McIntosh was wonderful 
because it was good to eat and 
the people liked it. This year 
there was a tremendous crop and 
everyone went into a tailspin. 
The apple is no worse than last 
year and the marketing possibili- 
ties are still wonderful. If you 
had any fortitude you would still 
like the McIntosh and be getting 
better prices for them! 
  Mr. Albright: I am in agree- 
ment one hundred per cent with 
Mr. Vedder. We have let the 
dealer and the consumer lead our 
line of thinking. If we had been 
out in front with a fairly good- 
colored McIntosh we would not 
be in this difficulty. 
-From New York State Horti- 
cultural Society Annual Report, 
1940. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH 
  GROUND SPRAYING FOR 
  COMBATING APPLE SCAB 
     (Continued from page 246) 
of effectiveness from the treat- 
ment. It is thought that the over- 
lying leaves in large measure 
prevented effective liberation of 
ascospores that escaped the treat- 
ment. 
  While the results from this ex- 
periment are very encouraging, 
it should be borne in mind that 
ground spraying for combating 
apple scab is still in the experi- 
mental stage. More extensive ex- 
periments are planned. 
248 
May, I-