It wi*s not, however, until the reign of Edward VI. that the 

 cultivation of the crop was seriously taken in hand. From 1549 to 

 1553, Dutch experts were employed by the Government to teach 

 the business of hop growing to the English farmers. In an Act of 

 the Privy Council, February i8th, 1549, a warrant was issued for 

 the payment of i 1 1 for " charges in bringing over certain hop- 

 setters," and in the two following years payments were made for 

 ivages to one Peter de Wolfe and his workmen for planting hops. 



The hop plant has its reproductive organs its stamens and 

 carpels containing the seed on different individual plants. We 

 thus have male plants and female plants distinct from each other. 

 Occasionally sports arise with the male and female flowers present 

 on the same individual, but these are abnormal uncommon forms. 



It will be useful to describe the various parts of the plant in 

 order, beginning with the seedling. 



Seedlings are very easily produced although they are generally 

 destroyed when very young by the hoeing and constant cultivation 

 which goes on in the spring and summer in all well-managed 

 gardens. The young plants have two narrow cotyledons or seed- 

 leaves not unlike those of a mangel, the subsequent young foliage 

 leaves being heart-shaped with serrated edges somewhat similar to 

 those of a stinging-nettle. 



The primary root of a young hop soon branches and produces 

 secondary roots which strike deep down into the ground, finding 

 their way along openings in the soil and through crevices into the 

 rocky substratum below. 



The complete system of roots below ground is very extensive, 

 thick roots descend almost vertically to considerable depths, and the 

 plant, when fully established, is more or less independent of surface 

 droughts in consequence. 



At the same time a vast number of smaller roots live in the 

 upper regions of the soil and increase enormously in quantity 

 wherever there is good tilth favouring development. About mid- 

 summer, and later, these delicate fibrous roots or " shank " are 

 evident in all well-tilled hop gardens, especially where the land is 



