390 THE HOP CROP. 



frequently exceeding a quarter of a million sterling. "It 

 would not be difficult (Kirby and Spence's Entomology) 

 to show that nearly the whole of this large sum, and their 

 own still greater, are losses thrown away by the hop 

 growers from their ignorance of entomology. Led by 

 their old prejudices of the 'fly' being produced by the 

 cold winds, &c., they do nothing towards its destruc- 

 tion. If aware of the way in which it is generated, 

 and by killing each female in the beginning of the 

 spring, they might prevent the birth not of thousands, 

 but of millions of aphides. Were they to take mea- 

 sures for thus lessening the numbers of their destruc- 

 tive enemy, they would, to a great extent, secure them- 

 selves from its attacks. The 'aphides' being so soft, are 

 killed by the slightest pressure, so that it is merely neces- 

 sary to rub an infested leaf between the thumb and 

 fingers, with a force quite insufficient to injure its texture, 

 to destroy every aphis upon it. From experiments made 

 in the Worcestershire district, in 1838, I am persuaded 

 that every leaf on each plant might be thus cleared of the 

 female aphides first infesting it in early spring, by women 

 or children, at an expense of 1-5. per sixty hills, and this 

 might easily be repeated if found necessary; while the 

 Haltica concinna, or 'flea,' which attacks the bines 

 earlier in the spring, might be destroyed by shaking them 

 from the plants into a sieve or bag of convenient shape, 

 and removing them from the ground/' 



Among the first enemies the young hop plants have to 

 encounter are the wire worms, which are more frequently 

 met with where old meadows and pastures have been 

 broken up for the plantation, and commence their attacks 

 as soon as the "cuttings" or "sets" are planted. Rape- 

 cake coarsely ground, and spread round the hills, has 

 been recommended as a remedy; it has the advantage of 

 being a good manurial application, even should it not 



