CULTURE AND PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND. 71 



even those upon the Kentish rag, which generally stand any 

 amount of heat ; and if the welcome showers had not come in 

 the last week of August, the crop must have been very far 

 short of that which has been realized. Notwithstanding the 

 dryness of the atmosphere for eight or nine weeks together, 

 mould was very troublesome, and threatened to run fast when 

 the hop cones were developed. Enormous quantities of 

 sulphur were applied, in many instances four or five ap- 

 plications of it were made, which seemed to be of no avail 

 until the wet came, when the mould, as a rule, was stayed, 

 except in parts of East 'Kent, ; and here and there in Mid 

 Kent. Mould literally defied sulphur in a few spots in East 

 Kent, where some acres were left unpicked in consequence of 

 its ravages: Generally speaking; the cultivation of the hop 

 plantations was not so good as usual in the winter and early 

 spring, nor was the manuring so liberal, for the planters as a 

 body had lost much money by the last two crops, and this 

 may in some degree account for the bad start made by the 

 bine. 



" The winter of 1875-6 was very wet, and not at all 

 suited to the cultivation of heavy land; the early spring 

 was also wet, and the long spell of dry weather came upon 

 the planters before they had succeeded in properly working 

 the rain-battered soil, and in obtaining a good tiller for the 

 rootlets and fibres. Clay lands in the Weald of Kent and 

 Sussex were very rough and cloddy throughout the whole 

 summer, and there was no chance of penetrating the surface 

 or of pulverizing the clods before the fibres were fairly dried 

 up. Planters assiduously washed the plants in many cases in 

 the worst blighted districts. Some washed as many as four 



