LAYING OUT A YAEI). 85 



Still other modifications of the twine system are 

 used in England and on the continent, which 

 are sufficiently explained in the accompanying 

 illustrations. By whatever method twine is 

 used in these systems, a device for tying the 

 string about the poles is useful. It consists of a 

 strong but light pole, eight to 12 feet long, with 

 screw eyelets like a fly rod, and a bag or bas- 

 ket at the bottom that will hold a ball of twine 

 snugly (see Fig. 34). A good 12-ply cotton 

 string is used. More permanent methods of 

 training by means of wire trellises are con- 

 stantly coming into wider use. The first cost 

 of these methods is more than for the pole and 

 twine system, but where hops are grown on a 

 large scale, some form of wire is probably the 

 more economical. It is claimed also that the 

 hop vines can be kept open to the sun more 

 thoroughly by trellises than by the string sys- 

 tem. There is also considerable saving in 

 labor, after the method is once established. 

 Spraying can also be done more thoroughly 

 when the vines are spread out on proper trel- 

 lises than when they grow more closely 

 FIG. 34. together, or simply on poles. Again, the hops 

 TWINE are no t wind-whipped as readily; it is claimed 

 OLE * that they mature earlier, can be picked cleaner, 

 and come down in better condition. 



Whitehead says: "One arrangement of wires 

 and string is much adopted in East Kent. It consists 

 of stout posts set at the end of every row of hop stocks, 

 and fastened with stays to keep them in place. At cer- 

 tain intervals in each row a post of similar size is fixed. 

 From post to post in the rows wires are stretched at a 

 height of half a foot from the ground and at a height 

 of six feet from the ground, and again from the tops of 

 each post; so that there are three lengths of wire in all. 



