HOPS 151 



was good mould, or dung and earth mixed. The hills were 

 like mole-hills 3 feet high, and sometimes were large enough 

 to have as many as 20 poles, so that some hop yards must 

 have looked very different then from what they do now, even 

 when poles are retained ; but from two to five poles per hill 

 was the more usual number. Cultivation was much the same 

 as in Reynold Scott's time, and picking was still done on 

 a 'floor' prepared by levelling the hills, watering, treading, 

 and sweeping the ground, round which the pickers sat and 

 picked into baskets, but the hop crib was also used. 



It was considered better not to let the hops get too ripe, as 

 the growers were aware of the value of a fresh, green-looking 

 sample ; and Worlidge advises the careful exclusion of leaves 

 and stalks, though Markham does not agree with him. Kilns 

 were of two sorts : l the English kiln made of wood, lath, and 

 clay ; the French of brick, lime, and sand, not so liable to 

 burn as the former and therefore better. One method of 

 drying was finely to bed the kiln with wheat straw laid on 

 the hair-cloth, the hops being spread 8 inches thick over this, 

 ' and then you shall keepe a fire a little more fervent than for 

 the drying of a kiln full of malt,' the fire not to be of wood, 

 for that made the hops smoky and tasted the beer, but of 

 straw ! Worlidge, strangely, recommended the bed of the 

 kiln to be covered with tin, as much better than hair-cloth, 

 for then any sort of fuel would do as well as charcoal, since 

 the smoke did not pass through the hops. 



Besides Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, 

 Leicestershire, and Rutlandshire; Lincolnshireand Cambridge- 

 shire were recommended by Markham for hop growing, the 

 great hop counties of to-day being passed over by him. 



The growth of hemp and flax had by this time considerably 



decayed, owing to the want of encouragement to trade in 



these commodities, the lack of experience in growing them, 



and the tithes which in some years amounted to more than 



1 Markham, op. cit. i. 1 88. 



