CULTIVATION. 



Ill 



surface that usable sets can no longer be cut therefrom. 

 Such stocks also throw up shoots too early in the year, 

 an undesirable tendency, since they are liable to be nipped 

 by frost, whereby an undoubted loss of structural material 

 is sustained. 



Furthermore, as pointed out by Fruwirth, a thicker 

 covering of soil over the sets is also advisable, because it 

 keeps the ground moist around the base of the underground 

 stem, and thus favours the growth of rootlets, i.e., the 



Pig. 28. — Planting two or three sets in a hole. 



organs whose task it is to absorb nutrient matter from the 

 soil. The more plentiful the rootlets the better is the 

 plant able to utilise the soil and manure— in other words, 

 to feed itself and develop. 



Growers exhibiting any particular preference for planting 

 two or more sets in a hole should remember to arrange them 

 with their heads towards a common centre, and with the 

 butts pointing outwards (Fig. 28). 



Cultivation and Cropping of the Hop Garden in the First Year. 



Given warm, damp weather in spring, the first shoots 

 will make their appearance about a fortnight after planting. 

 Every,. hop-grower knows that the sets are not invariably 

 uniform in this respect, but that there will always be a 

 few that require longer to come up, as well as others that, 

 from one cause or another, lose their vitality and die. 



