CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HOP. 43 



CHAPTEE IV. 



CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HOP (continued). 



MR. JOHN NOAKES, of the Furnace Farm, Lamberhurst, 

 well known as one of the most successful hop-growers, read 

 a paper recently before the Tunbridge Wells Farmers' Club 

 " On the Cultivation and Management of Hops," from which 

 I make the following extracts : 



" The first step, and which I consider important, is to get 

 the land as bare of herbage as possible, and to do this I 

 would recommend crowding on a number of sheep, to be 

 trough-fed, two or three weeks before the breaking up of the 

 land. By so doing the turf is much easier buried, and the 

 land is made solid and firm much sooner than when a 

 quantity of old grass is ploughed in. I prefer to plough two 

 furrows when the subsoil is loamy or broken than doing it in 

 one operation. The first furrow I have very fleet less than 

 3 inches if possible the horses to walk in the furrow, on 

 the sod when ploughing the second, which ought to be not 

 less than from 8 to 9 inches, making in all nearly 12 inches, 

 which is better than a greater depth. If the subsoil is 

 clayey or retentive, it is better to plough one furrow only, 

 from 9 to 10 inches deep, the horses of course walking on 

 the surface. Arable land should be ploughed deeper than 

 ordinary ploughing and subsoiled. For this purpose fine, 

 dry weather should be chosen, in order that the horses may 



