■28 HOPS. 



duct ; moreoyer, seedlings take longer to come into bearing 

 than the plants obtained from cuttings. On the other 

 iand, in hop nurseries the plan of growing from seed has a 

 certain practical utility, the object being, not the production 

 of marketable hops, but the examination of female plants 

 Tvith a view to determining whether some individuals are 

 characterised by unusual productivity, nearly, ripening, super- 

 ior cones, etc. This is, in fact, the only way to obtain new, 

 useful, and perhaps qualitatively superior varieties of the hop 

 plant, since, in consequence of spontaneous Variation or of 

 the seed being a product of cross fertilisation, the possibility 

 is afforded for the development of individual plants which, 

 within certain natural limits, unite in themselves a series 

 of good qualities. In any case it is not to be expected that 

 great productivity, high quality, and other valuable properties 

 will be found in a superlative degree concurrently in the 

 same plant. This is ^ well-known law of nature, and. was 

 pointed out by Darwin ; nevertheless, the union of quantity 

 and quality of produce, together with other useful charac- 

 teristics, in the same individual is possible within certain 

 limits, and it is the task of the cultivator to discover such 

 individuals as appear to possess harmoniously blended, valu- 

 able properties. A glimpse into vegetable, fruit and flower 

 gardening will show what success can be attained by selection 

 — one has only to think of the numerous varieties of carrots, 

 salad plants, and fruits, and of the almost infinite number of 

 different kinds of roses, cloves, etc., to recognise the wonderful 

 results that have been obtained. Moreover, in agriculture 

 selection has furnished results of eveil more widespread im- 

 portance to the world than those in the gardening industry. 

 The sugar beet affords an excellent example in this connec- 

 tion, and it may be not uninteresting to recall that, whereas 

 about thirty years ago growers were content to produce beet 

 yielding about 12 per cent, of sugar, at present 15 per cent. 



