II U M 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



HUM 



713 



length, and thirteen inches round at bottom, costing three 

 pounds per hundred. To form a plantation, they fallow the 

 laad a year, ploughing it three or four times. In November 

 they plant three sets to a hill, and a thousand hills to an 

 acre. They put on no manure, if the ground be good ; and 

 dig it over as soon as planted, on account of its being trod- 

 den. In the second year nothing is done but keeping the 

 ground clean, by skimming and harrowing ; after Michael- 

 mas they put on sixty loads of compost to an acre : glovers' 

 and tailors' shreds are accounted a good dressing. In the 

 third year, in February they cut down to the crown of the 

 plant, or the black rind. At the end of March they pole 

 the ground, three poles to a hill : after poling, they dig round 

 the plant. As to the Hop-grounds in Suffolk, the soil they 

 plant upon about Stowmarket, is a black loose moor, on a 

 gravelly bottom, very wet and boggy, lying on a dead level 

 with the river that runs by the town ; the more boggy and 

 loose it is, the better the Hops thrive, especially if the gravel 

 be within three feet, and the neighbouring grounds rise so 

 as to shelter them very well. In preparing for Hops, they 

 form beds sixteen feet wide, around which they dig trenches 

 about three feet wide, and two feet, or two feet and a half 

 deep ; the earth that comes out being spread upon the beds, 

 and the whole dug and levelled. Upon this, in March they 

 form holes six feet asunder every way, twelve inches in dia- 

 meter, and a spit deep, consequently there are three rows on 

 each bed. Into each hole they put half a peck of very rot- 

 ten dung or rich compost, scatter earth upon it, and plant 

 seven sets in each, drawing earth enough to them afterwards 

 to form something of a hillock. Some in the first years sow 

 Kidney-beans or common Beans, or plant Cabbages; but 

 others do not reckon this a good way. In two or three weeks, 

 according to the season, they will be fit to pole with old short 

 poles, to which they tie all the shoots or vines, and then keep 

 the land clean by hoeing and raking; and at Midsummer they 

 hill them. The produce the first year is from three to one 

 hundred-weight of Hops on an acre. Manure is not always 

 given, but amounts on an average to ten loads a year. They 

 keep it till it will run through a sieve, which they prefer to a 

 more putrid state. Three poles are put to each hill : they 

 are generally of ash, and the length preferred is twenty-four 

 feet; when a Hop rises much above a pole, they set another to 

 take the shoot, to prevent its falling, impeding the circulation 

 of air, and entangling with the poles of other hills. Produce. 

 The charge of an acre of Hop-ground, in most parts of Eng- 

 land where Hops are cultivated, is thus computed: three 

 pounds per acre for the husbandry ; four pounds for the wear 

 of the poles ; five pounds for picking and drying ; one pound 

 ten shillings for dung; one pound for rent, (though in some 

 places they pay four or five pounds per acre yearly for the rent 

 of the land,) and ten shillings for tithe: in all, about fifteen 

 pounds a year. The English Hop-planters, therefore, think 

 they have but a moderate return, when the produce of an acre 

 of Hops does not sell for more than thirty pounds. They fre- 

 quently have fifty, sixty, eighty, or a hundred pounds ; and in 

 a time of general scarcity, considerably more : so that, upon 

 the whole, if the total charge of an acre of Hops be computed 

 at fifteen pounds a year, and its average produce at thirty 

 pounds, the clear profit from an acre will be fifteen pounds a 

 year. The quantity of Hops produced on different soils in dif- 

 ferent years, varies from almost nothing, or perhaps two hun- 

 dred-weight, to twenty and even twenty-four hundred-weight 

 on an acre : but the average produce on middling soils, may be 

 estimated at six, and on such as are better, at seven or eight 

 hundred-weight. Some mention nine hundred-weight, which 

 may be occasionally produced, but ought not to be looked 

 VOL. i. 60. 



upon as general. In some places the expenses on an acre 

 of Hops may be estimated at thirty pounds, including rent, 

 taxes, &c. so that taking seven hundred-weight as the average 

 produce, the planters must greatly lose when they sell at 

 four guineas per hundred: but we have already seen that 

 this article is liable to such fluctuations that the average 

 price obtained must be much more ; and indeed if it were not, 

 the planters could not continue to cultivate it. Hops are 

 occasionally very profitable, although extremely uncertain in 

 their produce, which always must be very expensive. To 

 lessen the expense of poling and the trouble of picking, it 

 has been suggested, that planting Hops in the form of an 

 espalier might probably answer ; for it is observed, when a 

 pole falls, and another is obliged to be fixed in a lateral posi- 

 tion, the hop always bears more by being thus trained hori- 

 zontally, and Hops in an espalier might be picked as forward 

 as the planter chose, without cutting the vines. If Hops 

 also were only planted in such soils and situations as are well 

 adapted to them, there would be a much greater probability 

 of an efficient crop ; and by this means, though the expense 

 would not be diminished, the average profit would be in- 

 creased. Savings might certainly be made in cultivating only 

 on proper soils, where a less quantity of manure is wanted, 

 than upon such as are congenial to this crop; or in the vici- 

 nity of great towns, where abundance of manure can be easily 

 procured ; by attention to the quality, operation, and effect 

 of different manures, with the best time of laying them on ; 

 by uniting the business of maltster to that of hop-grower, by 

 which the malt-office may save the expense of building an 

 oast, or kiln, for drying them ; and by other attentions, of 

 which the Hop-planter ought to be the best judge. The 

 tithe of Hops ought surely to be regulated, where the expense 

 to the cultivator is so very considerable. General Observa- 

 tions. It is a general opinion among the Hop-planters, that 

 the plants which bear the male flowers, or the Wjld Hops, as 

 they call them, are of no service in securing or increasing a 

 crop ; they are therefore in general cast out. It would be 

 well, however, if some accurate experiments were made on 

 this subject. As to the soil, there will be no doubt of Hops 

 thriving when there is good marl or chalk, or even a moist 

 rock at bottom, with a surface of tolerably deep mould fre- 

 quently manured. ?he best soil certainly is a strong loam ; 

 clay, and a light black loam, are both bad. In general, how- 

 ever, every other year is often enough to manure the Hop- 

 ground ; and twenty cart-loads to each acre, a sufficient quan- 

 tity. It is the common practice to lay the dung on the crown 

 of the hill, that the winter rains may carry it down to the 

 roots ; but some spread the dung over the ground in autumn, 

 and seldom dig it in before February. Part of it is brought 

 to hills in the course of hilling the Hops in summer, and part 

 remains in the intervals for the nourishment of the fibres. 

 Though, in very favourable soils, Hops may be continued on 

 the same spot at pleasure, yet it is generally advisable to 

 break up the Hop-yard entirely in twenty or thirty years, 

 when the soil will be found in high order for almost any 

 crops for some years after, particularly for potatoes, of which 

 an immense burden may be produced from such ground. In 

 the preparation for planting, and the manner of it, the prac- 

 tice is very various. The ground is generally ploughed and 

 harrowed well the winter before it is intended to be planted : 

 but that does not seem necessary; for by the time the work- 

 men have gone over it, first to set out the hills, and tisen to 

 dig the holes and plant the Hops, the ground becomes o 

 trodden as to be little the better for ploughing. A better 

 method seems to be, to prepare the ground well the summer 

 before, and sow it with Turnips, by which means it is 

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