90 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



published the first English treatise on hops^ in which he says, 

 'one man may well keep 3,000 hils, upon every hil well 

 ordered you shall have 3 lb. of hoppes at the least, one 

 hundred pounds of these hoppes are commonly worth %6s. Hd., 

 one acre of ground and the third part of one man's labour 

 with small cost beside, shall yield unto him that ordereth the 

 same well, fortie marks yearly and that for ever,' an optimistic 

 estimate that many growers to-day would like to see realized. 

 * In the preparation of a hop garden ', says the same writer, 

 ' if your ground be grasse, it should be first sowen with hempe 

 or beanes which maketh the ground melowe, destroyeth 

 weedes, and leaveth the same in good season for this purpose.^ 

 At the end of Marche, repayre to some good garden to com- 

 pound with the owner for choice rootes, which in some places 

 will cost 5^. an hundredth. And now you must choose the 

 biggest rootes you can find, such as are three or four inches 

 about, and let every root be nine or ten inches long, and 

 contain three joints.' Holes were then to be dug at least 

 8 feet apart, one foot square, and one foot deep, and in each 

 two or three roots planted and well hilled up. Tusser, however, 

 recommended them much closer : 



'Five foot from another each hillock should stand, 

 As straight as a levelled line with the hand. 



Let every hillock be four foot wide. 

 Three poles to a hillock, I pas not how long, 

 Shall yield the more profit set deeplie and strong.' 



Three or four poles were to be set to each hill 15 or 16 

 feet long, unless the ground was very rich, the poles 9 or 10 

 inches in circumference at the butt, so as to last longer and 

 stand the wind well. After they were put up, the ground 



* 'A perfite platforme of a Hoppegarden ', in Ar/e of Gardening, by 

 R. Scott, 1574. 



^ Tusser recommends that the hopyard be dug. Thomas Tusser was 

 born in Essex, about 1525, and died in 1580. He led a roving life, which 

 included a good deal of farming ; but the statement that he died poor 

 appears to be inaccurate. Much of his advice is not very valuable. 



