HOP APHIS. 123 



delay attack, and certainly to all measures which will prevent 

 attack coming from Plum-trees being of service, including in 

 these destruction of the great hedges of Sloe which are found 

 in some places; and also (of course) ''washings," as a well- 

 known necessity when attack has come to the Hops. 



Special experiments as to effects of dressings applied for the 

 purpose of preventing Aphides coming up from the earth of the 

 hills to attack the young Hop bines, during May, were tried by 

 Mr. A. Ward on an acre of land in the Hop-grounds of Lady 

 Emily Foley, at Stoke Edith Park, near Hereford, kindly lent 

 by her for a trial-ground. At the beginning of May about 

 twelve hundred plants were dressed respectively with parafiin 

 oil mixed with shoddy, with ashes, with sawdust, and with 

 ashes and sawdust, and the remainder with lime ; with soot ; 

 with gas-lime ; with gas-lime and soot ; and likewise with 

 salt and ashes, without addition of paraffin. 



The salt, salt and lime, and likewise the gas-lime, were all 

 more or less injurious to the plants ; but the seven hundred 

 plants dressed with paraffin oil in ashes, or in some material 

 by means of which it could be spread on the hills, did ivell 

 throughout, besides being (as above mentioned) free from 

 attack till it appeared in winged form. 



The proportion used was one quart of paraffin oil to one 

 bushel of ashes, or of the other dry materials ; the surface of 

 the hill was well covered with the dressing, and where the 

 shoots had been pulled off from two rows the stocks sent up 

 strong shoots again through the parafiin applications. 



In the first lines of the extract following it will be seen that 

 Mr. C. Whitehead, so well known as a special authority on 

 matters connected with Hop-growing, strongly recommends 

 dressing Hop-hills as a preventive measure. 



"One of the best modes of prevention in the case of 

 Aphides is undoubtedly to put caustic substances, such as 

 lime, soot, lime-ashes, and others, round the stocks, or plant- 

 centres during the winter. Bines should be carefully collected 

 and removed from the Hop-gardens before February. All 

 dead pieces of bine should be cut away from the stocks and 

 burnt or taken away. The outsides of the Hop-gardens 

 should be kept brushed, and weed-growth prevented.* 



In the same paragraph Mr. Whitehead drew attention to 

 the advisableness of Damson-trees found to be infested with 

 Aphides being "washed," to i^revent the migration of the 

 " Fly " to the Hops, and the observations of the last few years 

 have shown still more clearly the great importance of thus 

 destroying the enemy before it takes wing. In this it will be 



* ' Eeport on Insects injurious to Hop,' prepared for the Agricultural 

 Department, by Charles Whitehead, F.L.S., &c., 1885. 



