I 



HOP GROWING 91 



round the poles was to be well rammed. Rushes or grass 

 were used for tieing the hops. During the growth of the 

 hops, not more than two or three bines were to be allowed to 

 each pole ; and after the first year the hills were to be 

 gradually raised from the alleys between the rows until, 

 according to the illustrations in Scott's book, they were 

 3 or 4 feet high, the 'greater you make your hylles the 

 more hoppes you shall have upon your poals '. When the 

 time for picking came, the bines when cut were carried to a 

 ' floore prepared for the purpose ', apparently of hardened earth, 

 where they were stripped into baskets, and Scott thought 

 that * it is not hurtfuU greatly though the smaller leaves be 

 mingled with the hoppes '. In wet weather the hops were to 

 be stripped in the house. The fire for drying hops was of 

 wood, and some dried their hops in the sun, both processes to 

 us appearing very risky ; as the first would be too quick, 

 and the latter next to impossible in September in England. 

 They were sometimes packed in barrels, as Tusser tells us, 

 * Some close them up drie in a hogshead or vat, yet canvas or 

 sontage (coarse cloth) is better than that.' 



By this time England had largely changed from a corn- 

 giowing to a stock-raising country ; Harrison, writing in the 

 middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign, says, * the soile of Britaine 

 is more inclined to feeding and grazing than profitable for tillage 

 and bearing of corne . . . and such store is there of cattle in 

 everie place that the fourth part of the land is scarcely manured 

 for the provision of graine.' But this statement seems exag- 

 gerated. We know that by Harrison's time enclosures had 

 affected but a small area, and the greater part of the cultivated 

 land was in open arable fields. The yield of corn was now 

 much greater than in the Middle Ages ; rye or wheat well 

 tilled and dressed now produced 15 to 20 bushels to the acre 

 instead of 6 or 8, barley 36 bushels, oats 4 or 5 quarters,^ 

 though in the north, which was still greatly behind the rest of 

 * Harrison, Description of Britain^ p. 1 10. 



