SOILS SUITABLE FOR CROP. 357 



varieties, such as the Flemish, Wildings, Rufflers, Golden 

 Tops, &c., met with occasionally in cultivation, which pos- 

 sess, or are supposed to possess, certain advantages for 

 cultivation in certain soils or districts. The varieties now 

 described, however, furnish the great bulk of our hop pro- 

 duce, and to these we must confine our attention. 



The range of soils in which the hop, in its different varie- 

 ties, may be cultivated is considerable, comprising well-nigh 

 every gradation from the light gravels and detrital soils 

 to the strong clays of the Weald. Beside the soil, how- 

 ever, climate and exposure exert considerable influence 

 upon their successful cultivation, as although the hop is 

 indigenous to this country, it is a tender plant, and very 

 liable to injury, from external as well as internal causes, 

 at different stages of its growth. If we run over the soils 

 of the different districts of the hop cultivation, we shall 

 find the finest qualities of Goldings, known in the market 

 as East Kents, growing upon a deep rich loam on a 

 rubbly or porous subsoil, or where a loam of sufficient 

 depth rests upon the broken beds of the upper chalk. On 

 these latter soils the produce is generally less in quantity, 

 but of a superior quality, than where the soil is deeper and 

 naturally richer. The soils of the Farnham hop district 

 are chiefly formed from the upper greensand formation, or 

 from a deep diluvial loam lying in the valleys beneath, 

 the physical characters of the soils, combined with the 

 large proportions of phosphoric acid which they contain, 

 rendering them admirably adapted for the growth of the 

 plant. This district has been the subject of a scientific in- 

 vestigation, the details of which are given in the Journal 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society, and will amply repay 

 perusal. 1 Even where the greensand thins out, and the 

 gault clay appears, this latter, which in its natural state 

 is only suited for the growth of oak timber, has, by a judi- 



1 Hoy. Agri. Soc. Journal, vol. ix. p. 56. 

 VOL. II. 56 



