Patent 2,435,951

Every well-instructed child eventually learns about the bees and the flowers.* Like busy cupids, bees fly from flower to flower, carrying pollen from the anthers" (male organs) and dusting it on the pistils (female organs). In a state of nature, this relatively simple service is all the outside help that flowers require for reproduction of their kind.

But in overcivilized modern orchards the trick does not always work. Many high-bred apple trees, for instance, have flowers that refuse to be fertilized by pollen of their own variety. They demand pollen from other varieties, which the local bees seldom supply.

Some up-to-date orchardists attempt to solve the problem by pinch-hitting for the bees. They collect pollen of an acceptable type and dust it from airplanes upon the choosy flowers. Orchardman Leo C. Antles of Wenatchee, Wash, prefers the natural way. He has just acquired a patent on a persuasive device. He puts the proper pollen in a little container (U.S. Patent 2,435,951) and attaches it to the beehive. The bees, forced to struggle through the Antles gadget on their way to work, carry to the flowers exactly the kind of pollen that the pistils need.

* For a current lesson, see CINEMA (Farrebique).

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