THE WORCESTER HOP TRADE 193 



to the old Goldings and the Canterbury and Farnham 

 Whitebines. But the Kentish Brandings, Fuggles, 

 and Cobbs are most generally grown and have almost 

 displaced the local varieties, of which in return only 

 the Mathon has obtained a slight footing in the east. 

 The west country hops generally have a reputation 

 of being rather thinner in character and more delicate 

 in colour and flavour than those coming from the 

 corresponding varieties in Kent, still more so than 

 the hops of the Weald and Sussex. They are 

 largely sold in open market in Worcester instead of 

 through factors as in London, Worcester being the 

 only open market left now that the Weyhill Fair has 

 become but a shadow of its former self. The harvest 

 is a trifle earlier in the west, and owing also to the 

 open market a strong trade is generally established 

 rather earlier in Worcester than in London, a fact 

 which of late years has been to the advantage of the 

 western growers, for the price has often tended to 

 fall rather than to harden as the season advanced. 



The gardens that we saw along the Teme Valley 

 were carrying a very fair show of bine considering 

 the drought, from which, indeed, they did not seem 

 to have suffered at all. They were not, however, 

 set with quite as many hops as might have been 

 expected from the bine ; and this could be attributed 

 partly to the heat and partly to the very persistent 

 washing that had been necessary to free them from 

 aphis, for washing when the flowering shoots are 

 forming always injures the yield by causing the pin 

 to drop. In some cases the cultivation was below 

 the proper standard and weeds too prominent ; but 

 this, again, might be set down to the washing, which 

 had occupied all the farmer's available strength of 

 horses. 



