METHODS OF GROWING. 365 



take cuttings or shoots from old plants, and either carry 

 them direct to the new ground or to a nursery bed already 

 prepared for their reception, where they are struck, com- 

 mence their individual growth, and are removed at the 

 end of the season as early as the new ground is prepared 

 for their reception. 



Plants may also be obtained from the matured seed of 

 the hop, yet the process is a tedious, and at the same time 

 an expensive one, as they could not be planted out in the 

 ground until they had been proved, as, like the seed of 

 the potato, already referred to (page 37), the young 

 stock always varies greatly from the parent, and although 

 a valuable new variety might occasionally be produced, 

 no reliance could be placed upon the seedlings following 

 the stock which it was desired to grow. In the prize 

 essay 1 "On the Management of Hops/' the author says, 

 "I once grew a great many plants from seeds of the Golding 

 hop : there was nearly an equal number of male and female 

 plants, but there was not one female plant that produced 

 a hop at all like a Golding, nor was there a single plant 

 amongst them all that produced a hop that I would have 

 raised a plantation of, or was not very inferior to any hop 

 I ever saw growing in a plantation. I am aware that 

 from seed a new variety of hop is produced, and from 

 which a small number of plants may be taken and propa- 

 gated, but it must be by the usual method of cutting from 

 the parent stock that the variety can be extended, so that 

 by cuttings only can a plantation be raised to any extent." 

 He also gives it as his opinion, that if it be wished to raise 

 a plantation quickly, bedded plants may be used, as they 

 will generally give a yield of 3 to 4 cwts. the first season 

 after they are planted, whereas no produce can be expected 

 the first season from a ground planted with cuttings. 

 These will generally about their third year have caught 



1 Roy. Agri. Soc. Journal, vol. ix. p. 532. 



