122 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Angnsi 17, 1871. 



4i feet wide, and 2 feet deep, ia fixed in briekworb, so as to 

 allow of a fire beneath it ; in this the poles are placed as 

 thickly as possible, with their tops upwards, a sort of rongh 

 framework keeping them in position at the top ; but previona 

 to putting them into the tank creosote ia poured into it in 

 sufficient quantity to reach the top, or nearly so, when the poles 

 are all put in. A fire is then applied underneath, and kept 

 burning for about twelve hours, when the poles may be taken 

 out and others put in. The creosote is said to enter the pole 

 at the bottom, which, of course, ia ready sharpened, and to 

 ascend through the wood considerably above the point of im- 

 mersion. A pole that would only last in an ordinary way five 

 or six years will now last nine or ten. I believe nothing in 

 Hop cultivation has become so universal a practice in so short 

 a time aa dipping the poles, and the apparatus for the purpose 

 is to be met with everywhere. 



The demand for Hop poles is so great that all kinds of cop- 

 pice wood of sufficient size and straightness are used, but the 

 most popular are Chestnut and Larch, many thousands of the 

 latter being imported into Kent. They are certainly the 

 straightest and neatest-looking poles of any, but it is question- 

 able whether they will last so long as Sweet Chestnut. Next 

 in order come Ash, Willow, and ilaple; and Beech, Birch, 

 Lime, and Alder are often met with, the dipping procesa render- 

 ing the laat two almost as enduring as better poles, bu' they 

 swallow up a large quantity of the dipping material. Hop 

 poles, however, have always been costly, and plots of ground 

 are frequently planted with Chestnut expressly for the purpose 

 of producing them, and the trees being cut about once in ten 

 years often realise from £iO to £50 per acre, the purchaser 

 cutting and finding all the necessary labour, &o. Plantations 

 of Larch are also occasionally made for the same purpose, the 

 trees being planted about IS inches or so apart, and the whole 

 cut at the end of twelve years or so ; the ground is then re- 

 turned to tillage purposes. But the facility of obtaining poles 

 from a distance having of late years so much increased, plant- 

 ing such ground is now not so much practised as formerly, but 

 steep banks, and Willow and other pollards by the sides of 

 ditches and other places, are made to yield poles of some kind. 

 The demand for them ia so great, that those a little crooked 

 are not objected to. To increase their durability the bark of 

 all kinds of poles is shaved off, excepting Ash, which, clinging 

 so closely to the timber, seems almost a part of it. The poles 

 are sharpened at the stout end, and every season, before being 

 inserted in the ground, all old ones are tried, whether they are 

 strong enough or not, by being struck sharply with the foot 

 aear the bottom while being held in a slanting position, and 

 all not bearing this ordeal are sharpened afresh, and if too 

 short for the place they are in are employed for another class 

 of Hops, and if too short for these, are used for firewood. The 

 annexed table gives the average prices of Hop poles per 

 hundred. 



16-fect IMeet 12-feet 10-teet 



poles. poles. poles. poles. 



Chestnut 40s 32-s 21s 9s. 



Larch 40s 30s 20s Ss. 



Ash Sds 26s 16s 8s. 



Oai, Birch, Beech, TVillow, ) 



Alder, Lime, and others, - 24s 16s 12s 7s. 



mised J 



It is almost unnecessary to remark that prices vary, but the 

 above may be regarded as a fair average. I cannot say what 

 the cost of dipping will be, but I expect from 6s. to 10s. per 

 hundred may be set down. 



New Mode or Trainisg. — Although in general the poles for 

 supporting the Hops are simply set upright in the ground, other 

 modes have been tried. A few years ago a gentleman patented 

 a plan for having only one stout pole standing about 7 feet 

 high from each hill, strings being stretched horizontally from 

 the tops of these poles both at right angles and diagonally, 

 and the Hops were trained to the stringa, but the plan waa 

 little adopted, and did not seem to answer. A method invented 

 by Mr. Coley, near Maidstone, promises better, and through the 

 kindness of Mr. Coley I was shown his garden, and nothing 

 could look better. I believe he, also, has patented his mode 

 of training — not in more than one case in twenty, a prudent 

 course as regards anything connected with cultural matters, 

 but the perfection to which he has brought it deserves public 

 recognition. 



Mr. Coley's mode is this : — A plantation at 7 feet apart is re- 

 commended, and on each hiU two poles are placed upright, 

 about 20 inches apart at the bottom, and a few inches more 

 perhaps at the top, for these poles are to be permanent in the 

 ground. A cross piece of wood at 4 feet from the ground is 



nailed to each pole, keeping all together, and a wire loop at the 

 side of each pole allows of the end of another slender polo 

 being inserted, while the opposite end of the pole rests in a 

 sort of fork, also made of stout wire, at the top of the pole on 

 the adjoining hill. This rafter-pole, as it may be called, does 

 not touch the ground anywhere, but is fixed between the up- 

 right poles at an angle of about 45°, and its top often goes past 

 the top of the poles it rest on to the extent of a couple of feet. 

 In training the Hops to poles so erected, four Vines are taken 

 to each pole starting from the ground, and when these have 

 grown high enough, two of them are trained to the rafter-pole 

 where il is inserted, and the other two continue their course 

 up the poles they started on. The advantages of this system 

 are twofold. First, the whole plantation being united together 

 in the way indicated when the Hops reach the tops of the 

 poles, high winds have little effect — and the damage done by 

 these is often very serious. Only last year a neighbour of 

 mine estimated his loss by the wind on September 10th at 

 £80 or £90, on a plantation of little more than five acres, and 

 others were nearly aa badly off. Now, Mr. Coley's system 

 certainly does afford great protection from wind. A second ad- 

 vantage is, that instead of the strings of Hops being all clustered 

 together and crowded round an upright pole, they hang down- 

 wards, free from each other, from the rafter-pole, like so many 

 enormous bunches of Grapes. Mr. Coley has called this 

 mode of growing them " The Vinery System." Assuredly 

 nothing could look better than the Hops in his garden about 

 the end of August, when I had the opportunity of seeing them. 

 Many of the strings of Hops reached the ground, and great 

 care having been taken to select straight Larch poles, and the 

 workmanship being perfect, the appearance, looking down the 

 alleys, was that of a perfect wall of Hops on each side, and the 

 sky-line quite clear the whole length of the garden — 200 or 

 300 yards. How far this system may receive public support 

 remains to be seen, but Mr. Coley's attention has been directed 

 to perfecting it in all its points — as in the preparation of the 

 loops, fork-ends, &c., of strong wire, for which purpose he has 

 provided suitable tools, leaving nothing to be desired, except 

 that all Hop poles should grow straight. His own garden was 

 a model in every way. 



Hops have also been tried at greater distances apart than 

 are generally allowed, and some years ago it was urged that a 

 rather close row of Hop plant?, but the rows 10 feet apart, was 

 the best mode of planting. Only a few, however, adopted this 

 system, and they soon departed from it. Other modes have 

 been tried from time to time, and now and then with more or 

 less succesa ; but the bulk of the Hops grown in 1870, and 

 that was one of the largest growths on record, were mostly on 

 upright poles placed around plants 6 feet from each other, and 

 that distance may be set down as the most common one at 

 which Hops are planted. 



CoscLUDixG Kemaeks. — The popular notion that for Hops 

 the weather can never be too hot and dry, received a check in 

 1868, when the drought certainly told upon them, and for the 

 first time red spider became a f'rmidable enemy. This insect, 

 however, did not appear in 1870, which was one of the most 

 favourable seasons on record, and the crop, with the exception 

 perhaps of that of 1859, the most abundant of any picked 

 of late years, but that of 1826 was, perhaps, as good. These 

 seasons will all be remembered as being very dry. Why the 

 crop of 1868 should not have been better it is difficult to say ; 

 in fact, there seems to be something bordering on capricious- 

 ness in the Hop. Occasionally unexpected recoveries from 

 blight have taken place late in the summer, and a fair crop 

 has been the result ; on the other hand, a promising crop has 

 taken a turn the other way just at the same time, so that the 

 occasional remark of the most experienced growers, that they 

 know " nothing at all about them," is not altogether self-dis- 

 paragement. The uncertainty that hangs over this crop pre- 

 vents more growers embarking in Hop cultivation, and invests 

 it with an amount of anxiety which no other crop causes, 

 instances of great wealth and great losses being on record. No- 

 thing deteriorates more by keeping than Hops, and old ones are 

 often unsaleable, and when thev paid an excise duty of some 

 18s. Sd. per cwt., great hardships were sometimes endured by 

 the growers, for unless the Hops were exported the duty could 

 not be refunded. Some growers have paid shippers a few 

 shillings per bale to take the Hops out to sea and throw them 

 overboard, in order to regain the remaining shillings of duty. 

 On the other hand, fabulous prices have sometimes been made, 

 and great crops secured. Even last year there was a gentleman 

 who had a growth of upwards of 300 tons in one parish, on 



