126 METHOD OF CULTIVATING THE HOK 



Wild or Hedge Hop ; the Goldings is an improved and 

 highly productive variety, but more subject to blight than 

 the other.* 



The Hop prefers a deep loamy soil on a dry bottom ; a 

 sheltered situation, but at the same time not so confined as 

 to prevent a free circulation of air. The soil requires to be 

 well pulverized arid manured previous to planting. In Hop 

 districts the ground is generally trenched either with a 

 plough or spade. The mode of planting is generally in 

 rows six feet apart, and the same distance in the row. By 

 some, five, six, or seven plants, are placed in a circular 

 form, which circles are distant five or six feet from each 

 other. The plants or cuttings are procured from the most 

 healthy of the old stools ; each should have two joints or 

 buds: from the one which is placed in the ground springs 

 the root, and from the other the stalk. Some plant the 

 cuttings at once where they are to remain, and by others 

 they are nursed a year in a garden. An interval crop of 

 Beans or Cabbage is generally taken the first year. Some- 

 times no poles are placed at the plants till the second year, 

 and then only short ones of six or seven feet. The third 

 year the Hop generally comes into full bearing, and then 

 from four to six poles from fourteen to sixteen feet in length 

 are placed to each circle, or one pole to each plant, if culti- 

 vated in straight rows. The most durable timber for poles 

 is that of the Spanish Chesnut. 



The after culture of the Hop consists in stirring the soil, 

 and keeping it free from weeds : in guiding the shoots to 

 the poles, and sometimes tying them for that purpose with 

 bass or withered rushes ; in eradicating any superfluous 

 shoots which may rise from the root, and in raising a small 

 heap of earth over the root to nourish the plant. 



Hops are known to be ready for gathering when the chaffy 

 capsules acquire a brown colour, and a firm consistence. 



* Besides these are the Farnham, or golden grape, which is cultivated 

 for an early crop ; and for late picking, the iVi ayfield grape, or ruffler, 

 is esteemed, which is a dwarfish variety. Great caution is necessary, 

 lest the varieties get mixed, as they will not ripen or dry equally, and 

 Consequently cannot be of one uniform colour and quality. 



