CHAPTER VI. 



FEEDING THE HOP PLANT 



HE hop is a rank feeder. The 

 most of its growth is made 

 in less than 90 days. This 

 growth is marvelous for its 

 luxuriance. Such luxury of 

 foliage is necessary if the 

 hops are to have a copious 

 supply of properly elaborated 

 elements in the plant to 

 draw upon during their ma- 

 turity. The plant must be 



fed for growth as well as for fruit, the one being de- 

 pendent upon the other, but avoid such treatment as 

 will force it to "run to vine" too much. These points 

 have only to be recognized to realize the necessity for 

 proper soil, appropriate fertilization and correct meth- 

 ods of culture. 



Of course a virgin soil filled with fertility, or re- 

 newed by an annual overflow or by irrigating with 

 water naturally rich in the elements of plant food, re- 

 quires little or no manuring. Such is the present con- 

 dition of many of the newer yards on the Pacific coast, 

 but it is only a question of time when even they will 

 require manuring. How best to feed the hop on the 

 more or less exhausted lands of the eastern states and 

 of the old world is a problem upon which we have com- 

 paratively little exact data. The experiment stations 

 in Bohemia are attacking this problem, likewise the 

 Wye Agricultural College in Kent and a little has been 

 done in Germany, but American experiment stations 



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