340 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XXX. 



According to the best information which we have been able to collect, we 

 believe that in every instance a fresh, rich, dark, loamy soil, interspersed 

 with friable sandstone, and lying upon an absorbent calcareous base, is es- 

 sential to the union of those desirable properties in a hop-ground, which 

 consist in quantity, quality, and duration. The duration depends wholly on 

 the nature of the land ; and chiefly, if not entirely, on its sub-strata : for 

 although there are instances of ordinary soils for the purposes of common 

 cultivation having been so far improved as to have afforded full burdens of 

 hops, yet no art has yet been able to bring land with non-calcareous sub- 

 soils to support such crops for a great length of time. Even the strong 

 lands of the weald of Kent seldom throw up more than ten or twelve pro- 

 fitable crops, while on the strong rich loams of the Maidstone quarter, and the 

 district around Farnham, which rest on rock and calcareous rubble, there 

 are hop-grounds which have existed beyond the memory of the oldest in- 

 habitant *. Land which abounds in flints or large stones, sands, or gravels, 

 are unfit for this plant ; and though large crops may be got on strong soils 

 which do not lie upon either chalk or marl, yet in point of quantity, they 

 are precarious, inferior in quality, and their rigour is comparatively of 

 very short duration. 



It would appear that the xiluation of hop plantations is not particularly 

 regarded, for they are to be found in all directions. The hop, however, like 

 all other delicate plants, is particularly liable to be injured by winds, the most 

 destructive of wliich generally come from the south-west, and which are 

 specially prejudicial during the spring months ; therefore, wherever a choice 

 can be obtained, a southern aspect should be preferred, and close hedges 

 should be planted on those sides from wliich the most destructive winds blow. 

 It takes three years in coming to complete perfection. On rich land, and 

 in favourable seasons, it sometimes produces a small quantity of flowers 

 during the first, and occasionally a moderate crop in the second year. 



CULTURE. 



The preparation of the land for the formation of a hop-ground should 

 be commenced either with a summer fallow, or as soon as possible after an 

 early vegetable crop has been taken off; and as soon as that is done, it 

 should be heavily manured with rotten dung : from 25 to 30 loads are very 

 commonly used, and some lay on much more. If the land be in clean con- 

 dition after the removal of the crop, or if it has been got into good order by 

 means of fallowing, then Norfolk turnips are very often sown, as they can be 

 folded and got oft" early in the winter ; and while they are eating oif, the 

 ground is trenched as fast as it is cleared in sharp ridges, to lay it up for the 

 frost to penetrate and mellow it, preparatory to the planting. There are 

 two modes of generally doing this; for that of setting the plants in pits, 

 which was formerly adopted, has been now almost universally abandoned : 

 namely, — 



First, By trenching the ground all over two-spit deep with the spade, or 

 double-digging it ; by which means the manure is more regularly and 

 intimately mixed with the soil, which is thus rendered so very open as 

 to be easily penetrated by the roots of the hops while they are young 

 and tender, and the breadth of ground over which they can spread when 

 they reach their full growth is much increased. 

 Secondly, By trench-ploughing ; which is considered as preferable, by 

 those who practise it, to double-digging — not because they regard it as 

 * Marshall's Southern Counties, vol. i,, pp. 186 and 286} vol. ii. p. 49. 



