PESTS OF Tin: TIOP CROP. ir)7 



the vines are promptly trained np a.c^ain, a surprising 

 aniniiiil of llie crop may he save(h 'lliere is a temj)ta- 

 lion l(» ahandon a ^ard that is hadl\' down, espeeiaUy 

 if the disaster oecurs quite late in the seas(jn, hut unless 

 priees are very low, sueh a eondition will often amply 

 rei)ay an effort to set it rij^ht. 



Wind has a haneful effeet upon hop plants when 

 ihe hurr is formiuf]^, and afterwards in all stages of the 

 i,M()wth of the cones. It hinders their full development, 

 and when they are ^ettin^^ ripe the heavy jT^alcs which 

 often come towards the end of Aug^ust make them 

 hrown by bruising^ them. In En^^land, says White- 

 head, many kinds of screens, or ''lews," arc adopted to 

 lessen the force of the wind; some natural, as rpiick 

 hedp^cs, in parts of Kent, which grow as hij;h as 20 to 

 25 feet in some districts, and row^s of Lom])ar(ly and 

 other kinds of poplar. Others are made of hip^h poles 

 set closely together, or of hop plants put as near to each 

 other as possible, and trained up poles pitched close 

 together around the outsides of the hop yard. Light 

 cloth of a coarse mesh, made of cocoanut fi1)er. is 

 stretched about twelve feet wide at about eight feet 

 from the ground upon wires fixed to permanent poles, 

 in those parts of the hop ground exposed to tiie pre- 

 vailing wind. Screening in this way is expensive, but 

 it is ' now adopted by most of the large Kentish 

 planters. 



vScorching is caused by the rays of a burning hot 

 sun striking the plant when the air is perfectly calm or 

 when there is not sufficient moisture in the ground to 

 counterbalance evaporation through the leaves. The 

 effects of scorching may l)e overcome l)y watering the 

 plants morning and evening. The disease usually 

 occurs when the hop is ripening. If after three or four 

 days' w^atering it does not disappear, it is better to pick 

 the cones at once rather than run the risk of losing 

 the entire crop. It may be that scorching of hops in 



