140 METHOD OF CULTIVATING THE HOP. 



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, vv^hich 

 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 gene- 

 rally taken the first year. Sometimes 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 cultivated in straight 

 rows. The most durable timber for poles is that of the Span- 

 ish Chesnut. 



" The after culture of the Hop consists in stimng 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 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 consist- 

 ence. Each chaffy capsule, or leaf calyx, contains one seed. 

 Before these are picked, the stalks are detached, and the 

 poles pulled up, and placed horizontally on frames of wood, 

 two or three poles at a time. The Hops are then picked off 

 by women and children. After being carefully separated 

 from the leaves and stalks, they are dropped into a large 

 cloth hung all round within the frame on tenter hooks. 

 When the cloth is full, the Hops are emptied into a large 

 sack, which is carried home, and the Hops laid on a kiln to 

 be dried. This is always to be done as soon as possible after 



