S64 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



either in themselves of an inferior quality, or have been injudiciously manufactured in 

 some respect or other, 



5432. The stripping and stacking of the poles succeeds to the operation of picking. It 

 is of some consequence that this business be executed as soon as possible after the crop is 

 removed; not only that the poles may be much safer from thieves when set up in stacks, 

 but that in such form they may take far less damage by the weather than when dispersed 

 about the ground with the vine on them. The usual price for stripping and stacking is 

 five shillings per acre. At this time, such poles as may be deemed unfit for further 

 service should be flung by, that the planter may have an early knowledge of the number 

 of new poles which will be wanting ; and thus the business of bringing on the poles may 

 be completed in the winter time, when the horses are not required about other labor ; and 

 these new poles may be drawn from the wood on the ground, and adjusted to the separate 

 stacks, as the state of the different parts of the ground may require, and the whole business 

 be completed before the poling season : whereas, when this method of flinging out the old 

 poles is neglected at the stacking, the planter being ignorant of the number of new poles 

 that will be required for the ensuing year, often finds at the poling season that he has not 

 laid in a sufficient stock. 



5433. In performing the operation of stacking the poles are set up in somewhat conical piles, or congeries, 

 of two to five hundred each. The method of proceeding is this : three stout poles of equal length are bound 

 together, a few feet from their tops, and their feet spread out, as those already mentioned for pointing the 

 poles. These serve as a stay to the embryo pile ; the poles being dropped in on each side, between the points 

 of the first three ; cautiously keeping an equal weight on every side ; for, on this even balance, the stability 

 of the stack depends. The degree of inclination or slope, and the diameter of the base of the pile, vary 

 with the length and the number of poles set up together. A stack of three or four hundred of the long 

 poles of the environs of Maidstone, occupy a circle of near twenty feet in diameter. It is observable, how- 

 ever, that the feet of the poles do not form one entire ring; but are collected in bundles or distinct divi- 

 sions, generally from three to six or eight in number ; each fasciculus being bound tightly together, a few 

 feet from the ground, with a large rough rope made of twisted vines, to prevent the wind from tearing away 

 the poles ; and the openings between the divisions give passage to violent blasts, and tend to prevent the 

 piles from being thrown down in a body ; a circumstance which does not often take place in screened 

 grounds. But, on the high exposure of Cox Heath, where great quantities of new poles brought out of 

 the Weald are piled for sale among the Maidstone planters, it is not uncommon for the piles to be blown 

 down, and to crush in their fall the sheej) or other animals that may have taken shelter under them. A 

 caution, this, to the inexperienced in the business of stacking; and an apology, if one is wanted, for the 

 minuteness of the detail. 



5434. The operation of stripping is generally performed by women ; being nothing 

 more than tearing off the bind or vines. Many people burn it on the ground. Others 

 suffer it to be carried off' by their workmen for firing ; and there are some, who tie it up 

 into small bundles, which they bring home and form into a stack, to answer the purpose 

 of bavins in heating their ovens or coppers. 



5435. The produce of the hop crop is liable to very considerable variation, according 

 to soil and season, from two or three to so much as twenty hundred weight ; but from 

 nine to ten, on middling soils, in tolerable seasons, are considered as average crops, 

 and twelve or fourteen good ones. Bannister asserts, that sixty bushels of fresh gathered 

 hops, if fully ripe, and not injured by the fly or other accident, will, when dried and 

 bagged, produce a hundred weight. Where the hops are much eaten by the flea, a 

 disaster which often befalls them, the sample is not only reduced in value, but the weight 

 diminished ; so that, when this misfortune occurs, the planter experiences a two-fold 

 loss. 



5436. To judge of the quality of hops, as the chief virtue resides in the yellow powder 

 contained in them, which is termed the condition, and is of an unctuous and clammy nature, 

 the more or less clammy the sample appears to be, the value will be increased or dimi- 

 nished in the opinion of the buyer. To this may be added the color, which it is of very 

 material consequence for the planter to preserve as bright as possible, since the purchaser 

 will always insist much on this article ; though, perhaps, the brightest colored hops are 

 not always the strongest flavored. 



5437. The duration of the hop plantation on good soil may be from fifteen to thirty 

 years ; but in general they begin to decline about the tenth year. Some advise that the 

 plantation should then be destroyed and a fresh one made elsewhere ; others consider it 

 the best plan to break up and plant a portion of new ground every two years, letting an 

 equal quantity of the old be destroyed, as in this way a regular succession of good plan- 

 tation will be kept up at a trifling charge. 



5438. The expenses of forming new hop-plantations is in general very great, being estimated, in many dis- 

 tricts, at from not less than seventy to a hundred pounds the acre. The produce is very uncertain ; often 

 very considerable ; but some seasons nothing, after all the labor of culture, except picking, has been 

 incurred. Where the lands are of the proper sort for them, and there are hop-poles on the farm, and the 

 farmer has a sufficient capital, it is probably a sort of husbandry that may be had recourse to with ad- 

 vantage ; but under the contrary circumstances, hops will seldom answer. In growing them in connection 

 with a farm, regard should be had to the extent that can be manured without detriment to the other 

 tillage lands. On the whole, hops are an expensive and precarious crop, the culture of which should be 

 well considered before it is entered upon. 



5439. The use of the hop in brewing is well known : their use is to prevent the beer 

 from becoming sour. In domestic economy the young shoots are eaten early in the 



