CULTIVATION. 13Si 



dread of the late spring frosts, -which have spoiled many ani 

 entire hop harvest. Similarly, early ripening is not always, 

 preferable, the question depending on the favourable or 

 unfavourable state of the weather at that time. Neither 

 has the appearance of aphides anything to do with the 

 cutting or non-cutting of the rootstocks, these insects not 

 infesting the stems, but congregating on the under side of 

 the leaves (without regard to the age of the plant), where 

 they are best protected from the sun, wind and rain. 

 Furthermore, the expense of cultivation, so far from being 

 smaller in cases where cutting is dispensed with, is occa- 

 sionally much higher in consequence of the increased 

 supplementary work necessary. Hence the method of non- 

 cutting, so warmly advocated by Hermann, must be regarded 

 as rather a retrogression than a sign of progress. 



More than seventy years ago the non-cutting system 

 was practised in the extensive hop gardens in the Huslitz 

 district of Eussia ; but the results proved in the highest 

 degree disastrous, and would undpubtedly have destroyed 

 the hop industry of the district if recourse had not been 

 had to cutting again. 



Strebel rightly observes that Hermann's views are ap- 

 parently based on experience of low wirework training. 

 Under these conditions there is formed, as soon as the 

 plants are sufficiently developed, a regular horizontal roof 

 of foliage, which from June onwards performs the same 

 service for the uncut, and therefore shallow-lying, root-, 

 stocks as is afforded by woods and thickets in the case of 

 wild hops, viz., it greatly assists in the equalisation of 

 temperature and fluctuations of moisture, and enables the 

 uncut stocks to make progress — as well as resulting, undei? 

 certain circumstances, in the production of satisfactory 

 crops. On the other hand, the absence of shelter to 

 minimise the effect on the rootstocks of repeated fluctua- 



