160 HOPS. 



can be counted as easily as in spring. In no case need 

 there be any fear of injury to the cut rootstocks by frost. 



(b) Spring Cutting. 



This is the method most generally adopted, because the 

 hop was originally cultivated in districts with such a favour- 

 able climate that no need was experienced for performing the 

 operation at any other time of the year, and the custom 

 was followed in other districts to which the industry 

 afterwards spread. Compared with autumn cutting, the 

 performance of this work in the spring offers the advantage 

 of enabling the flowering and gathering time to be regulated 

 so as to ensure their occurrence at the period most suitable 

 under local conditions, according as the stocks are cut at 

 an earlier or later date. It also furnishes better sets, and 

 less difficulty from weeds is met with in spring cutting. 



The other advantages ascribed to spring cutting, viz., 

 greater ease in performance and more favourable healing 

 of the wounds in the stocks, repose on an erroneous founda- 

 tion, since the wounds do not heal over at all but merely 

 dry up and die, whether produced in spring or autumn ; 

 and the ease with which the work can be carried out 

 depends rather on the prevailing weather than on the 

 season of the year. Generally, however, spring cutting 

 is the custom, and in most hop districts is the almost 

 invariable rule. 



The most advantageous time for spring cutting is a 

 matter that, in view of all the subsidiary circumstances to 

 be taken into consideration, can only be determined after 

 comparative experiments extending over a series of years. 

 It will vary according to the geographical situation and 

 climatic conditions of a given district ; also with the aspect 

 of the garden, the variety of hops grown (early or late 



