246 Cultivation of Arable Land. Hops Manuring of. 



fible, the mofr, careful and trufty labourers being always employed. It is ufually 

 done at a fixed price for one hundred hills, as from two millings to half a crown* 

 The labourer makes ufe of a three-pronged fork, which in fome places is termed 

 zJtp.d, for the purpofe, each prong being about an inch and a half in breadth. It 

 is of gnat confequence that this operation be executed in a very perfect manner,, 

 much of the fuccefs of the plantation depending upon it. If there mould be any 

 binds of an improper kind, they may be now removed, and others of the proper 

 forts put in their ftead. 



And though manure may fometimes be omitted in the fecond year where the 

 foil is very rich, it fhould be carefully applied before the bufinefs of winter-digging 

 commences in each fucceeding one, in the proportion of about twelve full cart 

 loads to the acre; fifteen loads of good frefti vegetable earth having been well 

 blended and incorporated with it by frequent turning, for ten or twelve months 

 before. In putting this comport upon the land, fmall one-horfe carts with three 

 wheels are fometimes recommended as the beft adapted to the purpofe. It mould 

 be laid in fmall heaps ; and, in digging the plantation, be well blended and in 

 termixed with the mould that furrounds the hills,at the difhmce of about a foot from 

 them.* The old flocks, when they begin to decline, as every tenth or twelfth 



* The prices that were ufually paid by the hop planters in the county of Kent, before the late ad 

 vances in the ratts of labour, for the feveral different operations in plantations of this fort, are thus 



t.ated by Mr. Bannifter : 



Eipences per acre, g. s* tl. 



Stripping and flacking poles - 5 O 



Winter digging - - - - 18 O 



Cutting - . - - -OOO 



I oiing : - 12 O 



Sharpening old poles, at 2d. per ftack - - 010 



Sharpening new poles, at 3d. per hundred - 02 



Shaving fet at - - .Q 4 



Tying - - - - - 10 O 



Summer digging (if ufed) - - - - 18 



Hoeing - - - - 5 O- 



Jiilling .... - 030 



Deduct furamer digging 



Add nidgcting ..... - . 10 O 



4 11 -\ 

 Picking at-frorr 1 :?. to 2d. per bufliel, and bagging at 8d. coarfc, and 6d. fine, 



