HOPS— PROPAGATION BY SEED. 



35c 



Ch. XXX.] 



animal kingdom, that of the cock-hop cannot, upon the same pvincijile, it 

 is presumed, be useless in the impregnation of the female plant. 



" In sowing the seeds, care should be taken that thev be selected from 

 Jiops that have been properly impregnated by male farina, taken from the 

 bine near a male hop. They should be sown early in the spring. In a 

 mixed soil of chalk, clay, and sand, among which the latter earth should 

 predominate. These may be set out in rows at the latter end of the year, 

 where they should remain until the sexual distinction can be ascertained : 

 this may be done by observing the leaf, and the forwardness of the plant. 

 The next year the males will show a rough leaf, when the females are only 

 just breaking out of the ground. When the sexual distinction is known, 

 at the latter end of the second year they may be planted into the ground 

 where they are to remain, and may be poled the third year. Every fifty 

 plants should have a male ; and there will be no objection to a male plant 

 being in the same hill witli the females. If the soil be congenial, and the 

 season not unpropitious, they will bear hops the third year." 



Regarding the after culture, the best hops grown at Lewisham have 

 been trained horizontally in the espalier form, on poles five feet high and 

 three feet apart, with a long pole fixed at the top to keep them steadv. 

 The male plants should be grown on upright poles, as the farina could 

 then fall uninterruptedly on the females beneath. The frame for training 

 hops, as represented in the annexed figure, is fixed in the ground, and not 

 intended to be removed. The lower part of the five -feet poles are charred 

 to preserve them ; the horizontal poles are cleft halvelings, and nailed or 

 tied to the uprights. The plants may be set at every stake, and rows formed 

 one way across the field, thus — 



This method, which has been formerly recommended by the Rev. Arthur 

 Young*, might be adopted with success, where poles are scarce, or where 

 the ground Ts exposed to high winds ; for when the hops are ripening they 

 sufle!- much from wind, and thus getting bruised, they soon change to a 



* "The hops should be in espaliers, to save in the expense of poles, and to throw the 

 binds nearer to the ground, on the principle of vineyards, which neverripen well, nor yield 

 plentifully when the vines are sutiered to rise high."— Sarv. of Sussex, p. 131 . 

 VOL. II. ^ ^ 



