714 



HUM 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



HUM 



thoroughly cleaned ; and early in winter, or if in autumn the 

 better, either to pull up the Turnips, or feed them off with 

 sheep, SB occasion may require, and so let it remain till the 

 spring; and then plant the Hops, and dig the ground. Sow 

 Turnips again in the ensuing summer, and as these must be 

 hoed twice, the young Hops are cleared at the same time. 

 When they are spent, care must be taken, if they are fed off 

 on the ground, to do it in dry weather. Thus the land being 

 dressed by the sheep, will not at first require so much manure. 

 Deans also, or Potatoes, may be planted the first year between 

 the hills ; and either mode will bring some profit during the 

 very time in which the Hops afford none. October is the 

 most proper season for planting with cuttings of the last year, 

 or nursery plants, as they are usually called. In Worcester- 

 shire, when the Hop-grounds are come to perfection, it is the 

 general practice to exclude every other growth, and trust to 

 them alone for a return of the great expense at which they 

 are cultivated. Under this management, those which have 

 been uniformly attended to in their prime, and not weakened 

 by over-poling, will continue to produce plentifully from 

 twenty to thirty years, and in some instances much longer; 

 care being taken to replace the stocks that accidentally decay. 

 On the other hand, fresh grounds are generally allowed to 

 produce the finest Hops, and in the greatest abundance, 

 the circumstance of those Hops which are most in request 

 ripening nearly all at one time, is a considerable inconveni- 

 ence both to the owner and holder of the estate ; as they 

 damage so soon, whether left on the wires when ripe, or 

 gathered, if not dried immediately. Hence it is necessary to 

 have buildings and a number of kilns in proportion to the 

 size of the plantations, and more hands during the season 

 than would be otherwise wanted. Could those sorts which 

 ripen earlier be improved, or any others introduced that do 

 so, it would be an important acquisition. The parts neces- 

 sary to perfect the seeds, are found on different plants ; and 

 as the greatest stress is laid on these, it may be proper to 

 notice, that the practice of removing the barren stocks may 

 be carried too far : it is an inquiry worth attending to, whe- 

 ther this be not the cause, in some instances, of the early 

 decay on many grounds. In cutting Hops, a necessary caution 

 should be observed respecting such asjgre young, not to use 

 the knife. too freely the first year. At this age, a sufficient 

 number of joints should be left below the knife; and if the 

 plants are weak, it may be as well only to trim off the dead bind 

 of the last year. Experience will best teach the planter when 

 his Hops are fit for picking. It is nevertheless better to begin 

 too soon than too late, as the high winds which prevail to- 

 wards the equinox many times produce more injury to the 

 planter, than he would sustain by beginning a day or two 

 before his Hops were thoroughly ripe. It is the prevailing 

 opinion, that the last-picked Hops will weigh heavier when 

 dried than the first; but the experiments of Mr. Prowling, of 

 Chewton, have demonstrated this to be a vulgar error. He 

 calculates that a bushel of green Hops, in a favourable year, 

 will yield about a pound and a half in weight when dried. In 

 Worcestershire, most of the estates which grow many Hops, 

 have plantations for raising the poles. Ash and barked oak 

 are preferred ; but willow, poplar, and alder, are also used. 

 Where the estate does not produce a sufficiency, they are 

 bought at the woods and coppices in the neighbourhood, at 

 from five to fifteen shillings per hundred. Their length is 

 from eight to eighteen and twenty feet, according to the 

 goodness of the lands, and they last seven or eight years with 

 care. The sets cost from two shillings to two-and-sixpence 

 per hundred : their length is from eight to eighteen. In this 

 county, the average of general expenses is thus calculated : 



workmanship twenty-five to thirty shillings per acre; picking, 

 drying, charcoal, sacks, and duty, thirty shillings per hundred- 

 weight. The implements used throughout this plantation are, 

 the plough, the kerf, the spade, iron crow, and Hop-knife. 

 The plough is the common one of the district ; the kerf is a 

 large hoe, with a plate about nine inches broad and thirteen 

 deep ; the spade needs no particular description ; the crow 

 is an iron bar, about four feet and a half long, generally 

 square at top, with a large point, in the octagon form, used 

 to make the hole in the ground for pitching the poles ; the 

 Hop-knife resembles the sickle in make, an old one being 

 often converted to this purpose, by grinding off its saw-edge, 

 and giving it a sharp one in its stead ; when made for the 

 purpose, it is something smaller. The crib and bags have 

 been already described ; the sacks, in which they are carried 

 from the Hop-ground to the kiln, are made of the same mate- 

 rials as the bags. In Essex the poles most esteemed are the 

 chestnut, ash, oak, sallow, and maple ; all fourteen years 

 growth from a wood, or eleven from a plantation. Mr. Boys, 

 in his Agricultural Survey of Kent, enumerates the following 

 things as necessary to a Hop-ground of four or five acres. 

 1st, An oast or kiln about sixteen feet square, costing, when 

 substantially built and allowing stowage-room, from 150 to 

 200. 2nd, A set of picking baskets, about twelve in num- 

 ber, and a good scale-beam and weights. 3rd, A skim made 

 with a frame like a wheelbarrow, which is also very useful 

 for tearing up weeds on summer fallows. 4th, A harrow 

 drawn by one horse, with a small wheel in front, to go round 

 at the ends of the plantation ; and a pair of handles to be 

 holden by the man who follows it, in order to keep it from 

 bruising the binds. 5th, An iron peeler, to make holes for 

 the poles to be fixed in ; and a Hop-dog to wrench them up. 

 Diseases. The Hop-grower has many enemies to dread. 

 A fly, similar to that which proves so fatal to Turnips, attacks 

 them on their first appearance in the spring, and sometimes 

 entirely destroys the first shoots. It is a very small animal, 

 which, on your approaching to touch it, retreats into the 

 ground with the nimbleness of a flea. Chalky land is much 

 subject to them, and they seem to be produced by warm dry 

 weather. In Surrey, a handful of dry ashes scattered over 

 every hill is thought very serviceable in driving them away : 

 but the Essex planters esteem it better to dung highly, that 

 the plants may grow out of danger, for they are considered 

 safe when they reach two feet high ; they do not therefore 

 apply any thing to stop it, thinking that a shower of rain 

 will complete the cure. The next enemy is the fly mentioned 

 by Mr. Miller, by which he means the long-winged fly, as 

 the Surrey planters call it. The appearance of these vermin 

 is dreaded as a pestilence ; they are the forerunners of lice, 

 and at last generally ruin the crop. The lice do not appear 

 to eat, but to poison, the leaf; they are worst in thick, 

 cloudy, hot, and moist weather. Many suppose that the 

 rain will wash them off, but this seems to have no founda- 

 tion, for they generally shelter themselves on the under side 

 of the leaf, where no rain can touch them. Lightning seems 

 to be their greatest enemy. These flies and lice are all 

 aphides, some of which are winged, and others not: and the 

 honeydew, so destructive to the Hop, is their excrement; it 

 causes their leaves to turn black, shrink, and at length fall 

 off. Sometimes they are so infested with this distemper, and 

 the lice united, as to perish entirely, and require to be planted 

 anew for many hills together. Another calamity to which 

 Hops are liable is, the red blight. This seldom attacks 

 them till they come to maturity, causing the Hops to assume 

 a reddish or rather deep ytllow colour, and the leaves fre- 

 quently to grow pale and sickly. When this happens, they 



