342 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXX. 



a compost of well-rotted dun<? and earth, it is placed in the holes, which 

 are filled up with the finely pulverized soil. The plants are then put in. 

 Some put three or more in a circle, others two, and some only one good 

 plant ; but the most general plan is to place three in each hole, at the depth 

 of about six inches ; and great nicety should be observed in fixing them. 

 The holes made by the dibble for that purpose are in a slanting direction 

 outward, so that the roots of the hop may grow in the inclined position in 

 which the poles are afterwards placed, without allowing their bines to be 

 interlaced. Some careful growers, indeed, put the fine mould gently in, 

 around, and upon the plants, with the hand. The plants should also be 

 raised above the natural level of the ground, both in order that the hop may 

 rise high enough to form the hillock to be made around them, and that the 

 root may have a greater dejilh of loose earth below them ; for, when the 

 land is very open, they penetrate so far into the soil that they have been 

 found on a very rich deep Icam in the neighbourhood of Farnham to the 

 depth of twenty feet. 



The whole field being in this manner planted, the great object of ihe ^rst 

 years manacjcment is to keep the intervals clean, and to furnivsh the young 

 plants with fresh, well pulverized soil ; for which purpose the ground should 

 be hand-weeded, and either hoed, or dug with the spade. In the first case, 

 the weeds are raked off; but in the second, they are buried by the spade, 

 and the finest mould is carefully laid by hand round the tops of the hills. 

 The more frequently tliese operations are performed the more healthy will 

 the plants become, as the moisture of the fresh earth greatly invigorates 

 them ; and, therefore, coarse woollen rags are very frequently placed upon 

 them as manure. As soon as the young shoots appear above the liills, they 

 are stuck with small poles, from ten to twelve feet long, or in proportion 

 to the length to which it is expected the bines will run ; and when they 

 rise to about two feet, women are employed to tie or twist them separately 

 round each. In a favourable season, and from strong plants, a few hops 

 are produced, but they are never gathered, and they seldom bear until the 

 second year. Early in November the ground is dug all over, carefully 

 turning it towards the plants, and then it is left rough during the winter. 



In the second year, whenever the season is at all kindly, either in the 

 month of February or the beginning of March, the hills are opened, in order 

 to get at the lower part of the last year's shoots, which ought now to be 

 pruned. The operation of opening the hills should be carefully done, either 

 with a narrow-pointed hop-hoe, or with an implement much used about 

 Farnham, where it is called a " beck." This is a double tool : on one side, 

 or end of it, is a strong hoe ; on the other a fork, or " spane," with two 

 prongs, which, instead of being sharp and narrow like those of the dung- 

 fork, are flat and broad ; thus when the spanes will not penetrate into the 

 soil, the beck is turned and the hoe applied. The vine is cut oil" with a 

 sharp pruning-knife to within an inch or two of the main stem, together 

 with all the suckers quite close to it. The soil is then replaced sufficiently 

 to cover the mounds, in order to prevent the air from affecting the plants 

 just before they begin to spindle; but is left rather bare around them. 

 During the whole of this second summer the ground is kept stirred, and 

 made perfectly clean, either with the horse and hand-hoe, or the spade ; 

 and when the vine shoots it will require poles of full twelve feet long. 



In the spring of the third year, the earth, wliicli had been replaced about 

 the hills in the previous autumn, is removed from their tops, and the young 

 suckers of the vines are again pruned in the same manner as in the former 



