128 HOPS. 



suming a, more convenient form, with a diminution of the 

 undesirable tendency to spread, and therefore becoming more 

 easy to deal with. Furthermore, the hop gardens, where 

 cutting was practised, assumed a more uniform appearance, 

 without which horse labour between the rows would be 

 impracticable. 



In respect of point 2 : The rootstock of the wild hop is 

 characterised by numerous stolons or running roots, also 

 known as " robbers ". These grow out horizontally from the 

 stock at a short distance below the surface, and throw up, a 

 little way from the parent plant, new shoots which, until 

 the runners have developed into independent plants, draw a 

 great part of their nourishment from the original rootstock, 

 and thereby weaken, if not entirely kill, the latter. This 

 undesirable property is also to some extent possessed by the 

 cultivated hop, and on this account the aforesaid runners 

 are carefully sought for at cutting time, when, if found, they 

 are severed from the parent plant and pulled up altogether, 

 a task generally requiring but little skill to perform suc- 

 cessfully. This treatment prevents wasteful dissemination of 

 the sap, an object that can only be attained by careful and 

 regular cutting every year, the formation of these runners 

 being retarded by this operation, in that the rootstock, 

 being kept a certain distance below the ground, is con- 

 strained to direct its shoots more upwards than laterally, 

 and to utilise its inherent force in developing the shoots 

 from the lower eyes. This accounts for the fact that runners 

 are seldom met with where cutting is properly performed. 



3. It becomes much easier to work the ground close up 

 to the stocks themselves when they are so deep in the ground 

 as to be protected from injury during hoeing. Moreover, the 

 annual operation of cutting is always accompanied by a 

 thorough loosening of the soil in the immediate vicinity of 

 the stocks. This admits air to the strata enclosing the fine 



