Ch. XXX.] HOPS— SOIL AND SITUATION. 339 



Worcester. They are also partially cultivated in other places, but these are 

 the chief districts. 



There is also a sort known as the " Flemish red-bine," which, although 

 a coarse species, is so much more hardy than the other kinds, that it 

 is much grown by those whose land lies under a bleak exposure. 



The hop is a perennial plant, the root of which strikes very deep into 

 the ground ; the stalk reaching spirally upwards to the height of twelve 

 or fifteen feet, entwined around the poles which support it, and bearing 

 flowers which grow upon the slender stem of a kind of creeping-bine. It 

 is at present so common, that a more minute description of it would be 

 superfluous ; but it may not be generally known, that it is the female 

 plants alone which are considered serviceable to the brewer. These produce 

 their flowers in cones, not unlike those of the fir in form, while the male 

 bears clusters somewhat resembling the blossoms of a currant bush, and the 

 flowers are alone made use of. Hops can be propagated by seeds, but they 

 are more usually grown from slips taken from the stem, or from old roots ; 

 or else with young nursery plants raised in beds. They are of a rough and 

 somewhat clammy feel, with an aromatic bitter flavour ; and are added to 

 beer, not only to render it more palatable by correcting the insipid sweet- 

 ness of the malt, but also to preserve it ; indeed of all the various sub- 

 stances which have been tried, none has so effectually answered both these 

 purposes, 



SOIL AND SITUATION. 



Although all cultivated in a nearly similar manner, and generally with 

 great skill, yet the quality of these various denominations differs in a greater 

 or less degree, according to the nature of the soil upon which they are 

 grown ; thus, in the vicinity of Canterbury, and throughout the greater 

 part of East Kent, the plantations are upon a deep, rich, loamy surface, 

 with a subsoil of loamy brick-earth, the whole of which lies above a stra- 

 tum of chalk, and there the sort produced is of a strong and rather bitter 

 flavour, which renders it in great request by the porter brewers. The 

 grounds around Maidstone, extending through the district on the rag-stone 

 shelf of land, or " stone-brash," which lies below the chalk-hills, on the bor- 

 ders of the weald of Kent, and is seldom unaccompanied by marl, in some 

 years yield great crops of hops, but the quality is somewhat inferior to those 

 of East Kent ; for although they in general grow larger, and have a thicker 

 leaf, yet they contain a less quantity of the farma, provincially " condition," 

 which constitutes their most essential property*. Much of the soil in the 

 neighbourhood of Farnham consists of a very mellow hazel mould, or of 

 a deep siliceous loam, rather strong, dry, friable, and very deep, lying upon 

 a calcareous or marly subsoil, and the hops produced on such land are of 

 a bright lively colour," with a fine fragrant bitter f- The Worcester and 

 Hereford hops are chiefly grown on loose friable but shallow soils, of a red 

 ochreous character, covering stone, — provincially termed "dun-stone," — and 

 resting, in some districts, on a soft crumbling species of rag-stone, which 

 perishes upon exposure to the frost; yet they are highly esteemed for the 

 delicate flavour which they impart to beer, and are therefore justly prized 

 by the brewers of that light kind usuallv denominated table-alej. 



* Boys' Survey of Kent, 2nd edit. p. 132. " Hops that are full of condition, on being 

 rubbed hard in the hand, emit a degree of odour, and disclose a degree of clamminess, 

 which are universally admitted as criteria of their strength." — Marshall's Southern 

 Counties, vol i. p. 272. 



t Malcolm's Survey, vol. ii., p. 499. Stevenson's do., p. 329. 



X Surveys of Hereford and Worcester, Chap. I., sect, oa Soil. 



z 2 



