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 
