ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES. 105 



glance over the average seed catalogue will show to 

 what extent this offering of novelties is being used as an 

 advertising factor by the seed-trade of to-day. To be 

 sure, all the so-called new varieties advertised in some 

 catalogues as novelties are not the "real thing," but 

 these are readily detected and become known to the 

 initiated under the term of synonyms, or as novelties 

 manufactured for the occasion like " wooden nutmegs." 



Production of a New Variety. To properly 

 undertake the production of a distinctly new sort, be- 

 sides breeding for only one thing at a time, there must 

 be a definite aim and purpose in view. In other words, 

 there must be established in the mind an ideal of the 

 plant to be bred. Merely to breed something new, even 

 if it be freakish or possesses no merit, must not be 

 thought of; the freak black lima bean, for example. 

 The market is already flooded with too many new 

 things of no account that possess nothing of improve- 

 ment (if really as good) over previously existing sorts, 

 but which cause confusion, annoyance and pecuniary 

 loss. 



What the public demands is something better, some- 

 thing that will be a gain. It readily accepts a new 

 type showing superiority over an older sort as respects 

 maturity, form, appearance, size, flavor, endurance, or 

 productiveness, but not otherwise. 



Methods. There are two processes for obtaining im- 

 provement in variety, namely, selection and crossing. 



Selection, the simpler process, is commonly prac- 

 ticed, and has been used to breed to their present 

 forms nearly all plants now under cultivation. 



The other, crossing, has two methods, viz., (a) 

 crossing proper, or crossing between two varieties 

 that are closely related, or between plants of the same 



