Book VI. THE HOP. 359 



agricultural point of view ; because much manure is abstracted by them, while little or 

 none is returned. They are an uncertain article of growth, often yielding large profits 

 to the cultivator, and as often making an imperfect return, l)arely sufficient to defray the 

 expenses of labor. In fact, hops are exposed to many more diseases than any other 

 plant with which we are acquainted ; and the trade affords a greater room for specula- 

 tion , than any other exercise within the British dominions. {^Brown. ) 



5395. There are several varieties of the hop. The writer of The Synopsis of Husbandry distinguishes 

 them under the titles of the Flemish, the Canterbury, the Goldings, the Farnham, &c. and says, that the 

 Flemish is held in the lowest estimation of any. It is, says he, of a smaller size, of a much closer contex- 

 ture, and of a darker green color than any of the rest, and grows on a red bind ; and has so near an affinity 

 to the wild or hedge-hop, that it would never answer for cultivation, did it not possess the property of resist- 

 ing the blast with greater vigor than the other kinds ; so that, in years when these last are covered with 

 flies and lice, the Flemish hop appears strong and healthy. At picking time, likewise, this kind of hop, he 

 says, takes less damage, either by the sun or rains, than any other ; and upon these accourits, it may 

 answer the views of the planter to have a few acres of it, which will secure him a crop in a blasting season, 

 when those of the more valuable class are destroyed, so as to be worth nothing. 



5396. The soils most favorable to the growth of hops are clays and strong deep loams ; 

 but it is also of great importance tliat the subsoil should be dry and friable, a cold, wet, 

 tenacious, clayey understratum, being found extremely injurious to the roots of the 

 plants ; as, when they ])enetrate below the good soil, they soon become unproductive, 

 and ultimately decay. Bannister says, that a chalky soil is, of all others, tl>e most inimicatl 

 to the growth of this vegetable ; the reason of which he takes to arise from the dry and 

 parching quality of the chalk, by which the roots are prevented from absorbing a quantitv 

 of moisture, equal to the supply of the vine or bind with sap during its growth ; for though 

 a dripping summer is by no means kindly to tlie welfare of the hop, yet since the vine in a 

 healthy state is very luxuriant, and furnished with a large abundance of branches, leaves, 

 fruit, &c. it follows that the demand of moisture from the soil must be proportionably 

 great to preserve the plant in health and vigor ; and for this reason the ground ought not 

 to be deficient in natural humidity. Hence we generally find the most luxuriant vine 

 growing on such land as is deep and rich, as moulds, &c. ; and in these grounds it is 

 common, he says, to grow a load on an acre. But it is to be observed, however, that the 

 abundance of fruit is not always in proportion to the length of the vines ; since those 

 soils, which from their fertility cause a large growth of vine, are more frequently attacked 

 with the blast than land of a shallower staple, where the vine is weaker and less 

 luxuriant. 



5397. But though rich moulds generally produce a larger growth of hops than other soiZs, tlrere is one 

 exception to this rule, where the growth is frequently eighteen or twenty hundred per acre. This is on 

 the rocks in the neighborhood of Maidstone, in Kent, a kind of slaty ground, with an understratum of 

 stone. On these rocks there is a large extent of hop-garden, where the vines run up to the tops of the 

 longest poles, and the increase is equal to that on the mo.st fertile soil of any kind. 



5398. The most desirable situation for a hop plantation is ground sloping gently towards the south or southw 

 west, and screened by means of high grounds or forest-trees, from the north and north-east. At the same 

 time it ought not to be so confined as to prevent that free circulation of air which is indispensably necessary 

 where plants grow so close together, and to such a height. A free circulation of air, in a hc^j.ground, 

 not only conduces to the health and vigor of the plants, but also prevents the crops from beii>g blighted, 

 or what the hop-farmers call fire-blasted, which often happens towards the middle of a large close planted 

 hop ground ; while the outsides, in consequence of the more free circulation of air that there takes place, 

 receive no injury whatever. 



5399. Bannister asserts, that those fields that lie within a few miles of the sea, or in the neighborhood of 

 Marshy or fenny levels, are seldom favorable to the growth of hops, as such grounds generally miscarry in 

 a blasting year ; and though, from the fertility of the soil, they may perhaps bripga plentiful'erop in' those 

 seasons when the growth is general, such situation is by no means an eligible spot for a hop groiuHl. In 

 Worcestershire and Herefordshire hops are very generally grown between the rows of fjuit trees in dug 

 or ploughed orchards. 



5400. In preparing the soil previously to planting, considerable attentioii is necessary 

 by fallowing, or otherwise, to destroy the weeds, and to reduce the soil to as pulverised a 

 state as possible. The ridges should also be made level, and dung applied with a liberal 

 hand. The most effectual preparation is trenching either by the plough or by manual 

 labor. 



5401 . The mode of planting is generally in rows, making the hills six feet distant from 

 each other ; though there are some people who, from avaricious motives, prefer a five-feet 

 plant. But as this vegetable, when advanced in growth, produces a large redundancy of 

 bind or vine, and leaves, it should seem that six feet cannot be too wide a distance ; and that 

 those which are planted closer will, from too confined a situation, be prevented from en- 

 joying a free circulation of the air ; from which much injury may proceed, as blasts, 

 mildews, mould, and other accidents, not to mention the disposition of the vine to house 

 or grow together at the tops of the poles, whereby the hops are so overshadowed as to be 

 debarred the influence of the sun, and thus not arrive to half their growth. 



5-102. As the planters differ in their number of hills to be made on the same given quantity of land, so 

 are they no loss capricious as to the manner of placing them ; some choosing to set them out with the most 

 cautious regularity in rows of equal disUnces, whilst others prefer a triangular plant. The former method 

 has this advantage over the other ; that the intervals may, in the early part of the summer, be kept 

 clean by means of the cultivator and harrow, from which the latter is excluded by their irregular 

 station ; and thus the ground must be tilled by the lioe at a great increase of charge, as the same labor 



