CULTUKE AND PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND. 63 



The average produce of hops per acre in England in periods 

 of seven years was therefore as follows : 



Cwts. , Cwts. 



1807-1813 .. .. 5-58 1835-1841 .. .. 6 -29 



1814-1820 .. .. 5-48 1842-1848 .. .. 7 '75 



1821-1827 .. .. 5-62 3849-1855 .. .. 7'60 



1828-1834 .. .. 5-31 1855-1861 .. .. 9 '75 



A hop acre differs from a statute acre, and is considered to 

 comprise a portion of land containing 1000 hop plants placed 

 in rows, 6 or 7 feet apart, and equal, upon an average, to 

 about two-thirds of the statute acre. 



The yearly average quantity grown in the ten years ending 

 1854 was not quite thirty-six millions of pounds, while in 

 the next five years the average annual produce amounted 

 to sixty-one' millions of pounds, although upwards of 12,000 

 acres of ground had been taken out of cultivation for hops 

 since 1855. In the year 1855 there was an aggregate of 

 57,757 acres of hop land, and a sum of 398,3657. was paid as 

 old duty on the hops gathered and cured that season ; but in 

 the next four years a considerable extent of hop gardens was 

 grubbed up, and in 1859 duty on 43,729 acres, amounting 

 to 328,070Z., was paid to the Inland Kevenue, and hop 

 grounds were diminished 14,028 acres. On the total aboli- 

 tion of the duty (an impost which for many years had been 

 a great source of grievance to the hop growers), the gardens 

 were again increased, and have now attained the largest 

 extent ever reached. In Kent, the most extensive hop county 

 in England, hops from 33,000 acres were gathered and cured 

 in 1870, and the early grounds averaged a yield of 14 cwt. 

 to 16 cwt. an acre. Sussex, another important hop-growing 

 district, cultivated 14,500 acres, and produced a yield from 



