CULTIVATION. 153 



2. Proper Season for Cutting. 



The satisfactory growth of the hop plant is influenced 

 as much by the season chosen for cutting as by the 

 accurate performance of the work. It is only the aerial 

 portion of the hop plant that dies down after its lifework has 

 been accomplished ; but vitality remains in the underground 

 rootstock for many years without cessation, even through 

 the winter, except that it lies dormant during that season, 

 as is the case with other perennial plants and with hiber- 

 nating animals. The permanent physiological activity of 

 the hop stock during the winter can be demonstrated by the 

 following experiment : a few stocks are cut in the autumn, 

 and some of the cuttings are planted at once, whilst others 

 are stored away safe from frost, in moist sand, until the 

 spring planting season. These latter being then planted out 

 along with a number of sets obtained by spring cutting, it 

 will be seen, on comparing the resulting fully developed 

 plants later in the same year, that, other conditions being 

 equal, those from spring cuttings are superior to the others. 

 This circumstance allows of the conclusion that a certain 

 amount of circulation of sap continues in the stock through- 

 out the winter, whereby the substance of the cuttings 

 becomes more completely developed and their vital force 

 improved. And it is this unextinguished vitality of the root- 

 stock that has to be borne in mind when the question of the 

 proper season for cutting comes under consideration. 



There are two main systems in this respect : spring 

 cutting and autumn cutting. The latter is usually performed 

 in October, when the aerial portion of the plant is either 

 already dead or moribund. On the other hand, spring 

 cutting extends over a longer period at a time when the 

 vitality of the plant is already reawakened, and may com- 

 mence in March — or even February in some districts — and 



