LATE VARIETIES 



345 



after which the thickened basal portions of each of the previous 

 year's ' bines ' are cut off within a quarter of an inch or less 

 of the old rhizome. The latter, therefore, extends but a short 

 distance each year, and the thickened pieces cut off are called 

 'cuts' and are either used for the formation of 'sets' for the 

 propagation of the crop, or are thrown away. 



Each ' cut ' is from 4 to 6 inches long and bears upon it two 

 or three opposite groups of buds (Fig. 108). 



The 'cuts' are either planted out in the 

 garden at once, in which case they are known 

 as ' cut sets,' or are placed in beds in a nursery 

 until autumn, at which time they are removed 

 to their permanent quarters in the hop-garden : 

 the latter is the best and most usual practice, 

 and ' cuts ' treated in this way are known as 

 'bedded sets.' 



The 'sets' are planted in rows, the rows 

 being from 6 to 10 feet apart, and the plants 

 from 5 to 8 feet apart from each other in the 

 rows. Usually they are planted at the corners 

 of squares of 6 or 7 feet side. 



Hops may also be raised from ' seed ' (fruits) 

 sown in autumn. About half the plants ob- 

 tained in this manner are males and of no use 

 to the grower; the rest — female plants — are 

 generally of poor quality, and very rarely re- 

 semble the female parent. For example, most 

 of the female seedlings from the choice Canter- 

 or'cuttingTaPie/eof bury Whitebine variety yields strobiles which 

 thi '"kTweJ^fving^'part are coarse and of objectionable aroma. The 

 and\:verlT'g?^Vs°of large preponderance of plants of very poor 

 buds as at b. quality among seedlings is no doubt connected 



with the fact that one of the parents, namely, the male, is always 

 practically a wild form, for, on account of their being of no use 



