11 



damp, acre after acre falls a victim to the attack, whicli often originates from 

 sheer inattention." 



Mould spreads fastest in warm, damp weather. It commences near the ground, 

 and therefore great attention ought to be paid to the frequent pulling off of the 

 suckers, as they sprout through the hill in the summer months. Every spotted 

 leaf should be destroyed. And here we now see the necessity of making such 

 selection of the site of the hop plantation as will secure a free access of air and 

 sunlight, for dryness is a check to this disease. 



4. Cultivation. — Supposing the ground to have been properly prepared for 

 setting out the plants, and that they have been grown one season from the slip, 

 the first step is to determine the number of plants to the acre. The width of 

 the hills, in Great Britain, varies according to the varieties of the hop — the 

 stronger growing ones requiring more room. From six to eight feet square is 

 the customary distances, and in the United States seven feet is the usual distance. 

 The following table shows the number of plants required for the distances named. 



6 feet 1, 236 plants. 



6 feet 6 inches 1, 060 " 



7 feet 888 " 



7 feet 6 inches 795 " 



8 feet 695 " 



By having a white rag or other conspicuous object on the chain or measuring 

 cord at the distances desired to form the hills, the places to set the stakes will 

 be more readily indicated. These stakes should be of sufficient height to correct 

 the range by. 



Male and female plants. — The sexes of the hop plant are not united in the 

 same plant, but some are male and others female. Since the sexual relation of 

 the, strawberry plants have been so thoroughly discussed in the United States, 

 the importance of having some male plants in the hop grounds will be generally 

 admitted. The male flower grows in a loose panicle, whilst the female flower 

 is compact, like the cone of the pine tree. Hop seeds produce plants, but as 

 they are like fruit seeds, producing varieties of quite different qualities, the hop 

 plants should be multiplied by slips from a well-known and approved variety. 



Although most of American farmers have some knowledge of the importance 

 of having enough male among the female plants to fertilize them, yet this im- 

 portance is so peculiar in the hop that some special reference to it is necessary. 



At the base of each scale or leaf of the female blossom of the hop there is a 

 flower, in which is the germ of the seed. As this seed matures the scales grow 

 larger, and are covered with resinous aromatic balls, called hifuline. These are 

 the fine yellow powder of the hop, and contain that bitter principle which ren- 

 ders the hop so valuable in preserving and flavoring malt liqiiors. This bitter 

 principle is stronger or more delicately flavored in some varieties of the hop than 

 in others, and in proportion as the seed is fully developed. This female blossom 

 is vitalized by the pollen of the male plant. "Though the pollen," says an Eng- 

 lish writer, " from its extreme lightness, can be wafted to a considerable distance 

 and some seeds in each cone may be so fertilized, yet it would be well to rear 

 a number of the male plants among the others, or along the hedges of the hop 

 gardens, to insure the fertilization of all the seeds. A bushel of hops collected 

 from plants of the fourth year, raised from seed, weighed 36 pounds, there being 

 male plants near; a second instance, where the plants were raised from cuttings, 

 weighed 35 pounds ; while a bushel, grown in a garden where the male plants 

 were always ei-adicated, weighed only 22 pounds. Besides the greater quantity 

 of hops thus obtained, the aroma is much greater (the lupuline, on which the 

 aroma depends, is considered by Blanche to be the unappropriated pollen dust 

 which has alighted on the scales of the females) and the strength of the bitter 

 much Greater." 



