BeoK VL THE HOP. 865 



spring as asparagus, and are sold under the name of hop-tops ; they are said to be diure- 

 tic, and to be good against the scurvy, taken in an infusion. The herb will dye wool 

 yellow. From the stalks a strong cloth is made in Sweden: for this purpose they 

 must be gathered in autumn, soaked in water all winter ; and in March, after being 

 dried in a stove, they are dressed like flax. They require a longer time to rot than flax,' 

 and if not completely macerated, the woody part will not separate, nor the cloth prove 

 white or fine. Hence a farmer who has a hop plantation need neither grow asparagus 

 nor flax, and may, when the flowers fail from disease, separate the fibre from the vine, 

 and employ the poor, or machinery, in spinning and weaving it. A decoction of the 

 roots of hops is considered as good a sudorific as sarsaparilla ; and the smell of the 

 flowers is found to be soporific. A pillow filled with hops was prescribed for the use of 

 Geo. III. in his illness of 1787. 



5440. 'The hop is j^sculiarly liable to diseases. There is scarcely any sort of plant 

 cultivated as a field-crop that is more liable to become diseased than the hop. It 

 is apt, in the very early stage of its growth, to be devoured, as it rises above 

 the surface of the ground, by the ravages of an insect of the flea kind. At a 

 more advanced stage, it is subject to the still more injurious effects of the 

 green or long-winged fly, red spider, and otter moth : the former, by the depo- 

 siting of their ova, afford the means of producing lice in great abundance ; by which 

 the plaEts are often very greatly, if not wholly, destroyed, and the larvae of the latter 

 prey upon the roots, and thus render the plants weak and subject to disease. The 

 honey-dew is another disease to which the hop is exposed about the same time, and 

 by which it is often much injured. The mould occurs in general at a some- 

 what later period, being equally injurious. Hop-crops are also exposed to other inju- 

 ries, as the blight, and fire-blast, but which take place at different times, though mostly 

 towards the latter periods of the growth of the plants. 



5441. With regard to the flea, which is said to be an insect of the same kind as that which is so preju- 

 dicial to the young turnip, it is observed to make the greatest havock in seasons where the ntghts are cold 

 and frosty, and the days hot and inclined to be dry ; eating oft" the sweet tender tops of the young plants ; 

 and whichj though not wholly destroyed, shoot forth afterwards in a far less vigorous manner, and of course 

 become more exposed to diseases. It has been found to commit its depredations most frequently on the 

 plants in grounds that have been dunged the same year ; on which account it has been suggested that the 

 manure employed for the purpose of covering the hills should be previously well mixed and incorporated 

 as directed above (5411.) ; and that it should be applied either over the whole of the land, or only the 

 hills, AS soon as possible after the plants have been cut over ; but the former practice is probably the best- 

 It makes its greatest depredations in the more early cold spring months, as the latter end of April and 

 beginning of the succeeding month, disappearing as the season becomes more mild and warm. In these 

 cases, the principal remedy is that of having the land in a sufficient state of fertility, to enable the young 

 plants to shoot up wiih such vigor and rapidity as to become quickly incapable of being fed upon and 

 devoured by the insect. And the frequent stirring of the mould about the roots of the plants by the hoe 

 may be of utility in the same view. 



5442. With respect to the green or long-winged fly, it mostly makes its appearance about the latter end 

 of May, and in the two succeeding months ; being supposed to be produced by the prevalence of 

 north-easterly winds about that period. It is highly destructive to the young leaves of the plants. They 

 are said, under such a state of the wind, to scarcely ever fail covering "the leaves ; and, by dropping their 

 ova, producing an abundance of lice, by which the crops are often much injured ; as when they have once 

 obtained complete possession of the plants, they seldom or ever leave them before they are wholly de- 

 stroyed. The forwardest and most luxuriant hop-vines are in general the most disposed to be attacked by 

 insects of this sort. Their removal chiefly depends upon a change taking place in the wind more to the 

 south, and the setting.in of more mild, warm, and temperate weather. 



5443. It has been found that the otter moth, by depositing its eggs upon the roots of the plants, renders 

 them liable to be attacked by the larvae, and the healthy growth of the hops to be thereby greatly im- 

 paired, the crops being of course much injured in their produce. Stirring the earth well about the roots of 

 the plants may probably sometimes be serviceable in cases of this kind. 



5444. The honey-dew mostly occurs after the crops have been attacked by some of these kinds of insects, 

 and when the weather is close, moist, and foggy. In these cases, a sweet clammy substance is produced 

 upon the leaves of the plants, which has the taste of honey, and they have at first a shining appearance, 

 but afterwards soon become black. It is a disease that mostly happens in the more forward crops j and 

 the chief dependence of the planter for its removal, according to Bannister, is that of heavy thunder 

 showers taking place ; as by this means, when the destruction of the hops has not proceeded too far, they 

 are often much restored, the insects that devour the leaves and vines being greatly destroyed, the growth 

 of fresh shoots promoted, and a favorable bloom brought on the plants. 



5445. It is well known that the fen, mould, or mildew, is a disease to which the hop-crop is exposed at a 

 later period of its growth, and which chiefly attacks the part where the hop is attached to the stem. It is 

 said that its production is greatly promoted by moist damp weather, and a low situation ; those hop-crops, 

 that grow on low, close, rich grounds, being the most liable to be attacketl by it : and it is found to soon 

 spread itself over the whole crop, after it has once seized upon any part of it. The nature of this 

 vegetable disease has not been yet sufficiently investigated ; it has been suggested by Darwin and Will- 

 denow to be a plant of the fungus kind, that is capable of growing without light or change of air, attaching 

 itself to plants already in a morbid condition, and by its roots penetrating their vessels. And on this sup- 

 position, the best remedy is believed to be that of thinning the plants, in order to afford a more free 

 circulation of air, and admit the light more extensively ; by which the vigor of the hop-plants may be 

 restored, and the disease be of course removed. In this view, it is probable, by planting the hills more 

 thinly, and making them at greater distances from each other, the disease might in some measure be 

 prevented from taking place. (See 1659.) 



5446. Diseases termed blights are frequently met with in hop-crops, at different periods of the growth 

 of the plants, but mostly in the more early stages of their rising from the hills, while the nights are cold 

 and frosty in the spring months, and the days have much sun and heat ; by which the living powers of 

 the plants are greatly exhausted in the day-time by the stimulus of heat, and of course much injured, or 

 wholly destroyed in the nights, from being exposed to a freezing air, which is incapable of exciting the 

 actions, which are necessarj' for the preservation of vegetable life. As the presence of this disease is 



3 K 



