30 



THE MANURING OF HOPS. 



BY BERNARD DYER, D.Sc., F.I.C. 



'""PHE manuring of hops has received during the last ten or twelve 

 years more systematic attention than has been devoted to the 

 .subject at any time previously. Experiments have been made with 

 various manures at various centres under the auspices of the 

 Agricultural College at Wye, and at the same time a systematic and 

 continuous series of experiments has been carried out under the 

 direction of the present writer on the farm of Mr. F. W, E. SHRIVELL, 

 at Golden Green, Hadlow, Tonbridge. 



Furthermore, in pursuance of the line of investigation marked 

 out in our Hadlow experiments, similar experiments on an extensive 

 scale have been carried out simultaneously during several years 

 .at no less than twenty-one farms or stations by members of the 

 German Society of Hop-growers (Deutsche Hopfenbauverein), under 

 the direction of Prof. WAGNER, of Weihenstephan. 



In all of these experiments the influence of manuring on the 

 quality as well as the yield of hops has been taken into account. 



Although hop-growers have never been backward in spending 

 money on manure for their gardens, there can be little doubt that a 

 great deal of the manuring practised until recent years has been very 

 unscientific. Hops, like most luxuriantly growing plants, are very 

 responsive to applications of nitrogenous manure. Repeated observa- 

 tion of this fact formerly led to the very general overlooking of the 

 fact that the hop crop is in equal need of other manurial constituents 

 like phosphates and potash. Thus, while our hop farmers used a great 

 abundance of essentially nitrogenous manures e.g., wool dust, shoddy, 



