CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANT. 39 



are principally cultivated. Fuggle's Goldings are now being 

 planted rather extensively. 



"The Golding is undoubtedly the best English hop, hav- 

 ing unsurpassed aroma and brewing value. The Golding is 

 a sub-variety of the Canterbury hop, which was raised by a 

 Mr. Golding of Kent, about 1800, who observed in his grounds 

 a plant of extraordinary quality and productiveness and 

 marked it and propagated from it, furnishing his neighbors 

 with cuttings. This variety has small compact cones, shaped 

 somewhat like a filbert, of a light golden color when ripo. 

 The cones do not cluster together, but grow in bunches of 

 two or three cones. Bramblings are Goldings of slightly dif- 

 ferent shape, coming earlier to pick, having valuable Golding 

 attributes. White'? Early Golding is the earliest hop with 

 Golding characteristics, but it is rather delicate, and a shy 

 bearer. 



"The Grape and Whitebine Grape are very useful, handy 

 sorts, having large cones that grow to a great size in some 

 soils, and hanging in clusters like grapes. There are other 

 kinds of Grapes, as the Farnham Whitebine, full of quality 

 and a very good bearer. Cooper's White is a rather early va- 

 riety. Mayf eld Grape is a hardy, useful prolific kind. Buss's 

 Golding and Fuggle's Golding have not many Golding quali- 

 ties. They are rather coarse, coming to pick later than 

 Goldings, but they are good cropping sorts, especially the 

 Fuggle's Golding, and are not as a rule so disposed to blight 

 and mold as others. The Jones is a very useful hop, yield- 

 ing well on some soils; it has large cones, and when grown 

 on good land has much quality. There are very early and 

 common varieties, as Prolifics, Meopharas, and others, whicli 

 yield large crops of inferior quality, and are not much in 

 favor with brewers when other kinds are available at reason- 

 able rates. 



"The Mathon is peculiar to Worcestershire and Here- 

 fordshire, and approaches nearly in flavor to the Ea'?t Kent 

 Golding. In Sussex and the weald of Kent, the Colegate is 

 grown, but not nearly so extensively as twenty-five years 

 ago, and many planters are eliminating it altogetlaer and 

 pfanting Fuggle's, Hobb's, Henham's. and Buss's Golding 

 It comes to pick latest of all hops. It is a very hardy but 

 backward hop, and will grow on any soil: it runs niiudi to 

 vine and requires as long poles as Goldings. The hops are 

 generally very small, when quite ripe before they are picked; 

 they have a rich, thick appearance when dried, but the smell 

 and flavor are not good, and some brewers object to them. 



"Hops of a Golding type are cultivated on the best soils 

 in Hampshire and Surrey, while Grapes, as the ordinary 

 Grape, and William's Whitebine Grape, the Grape Green- 

 bine, Henham's and Fuggle's have been planted on the 

 poorer soil. There has been a disposition of late m Here- 



