198 



HOPS. 



The opinion, occasionally heard, that under otherwise 

 similar conditions wire training produces fewer and inferior 

 cones to pole-work is a prejudice due solely to the con- 

 servatism characteristic of individual growers. As a rule, 

 unsuccess is rather to be sought in an erroneous choice of 

 the type of frame than in the use of wire training per se. 



On this point reference may be made to an experiment 

 by Dr. J. Behrens,^ proving that when the frame system 

 is ill-chosen the hops yield a smaller crop than if trained 

 on poles. The experiment was made in a garden where 

 three systems of training were in use : two systems of wire 

 work and one of ordinary poling. One of the frame systems 

 was that of Hermann, 80 inches high, the other being 

 composed of ascending wires 10 ft. high; which, at a height 

 of about 40 inches from the ground, branched and led to 

 two different ' sets of horizontal -wires. The soil was uni- 

 form, the hops the local, Schwetzinger variety. Particulars 

 of yield, area occupied by the systems of training, number 

 of stocks, etc., are given in the following table : — 



Behrens says : "In accordance with what might be ex- 

 pected, the figures show that the cones are smaller in the 

 case of pole training, and larger and coarser on the wire 



^ Dr. J. Behrens, " Ueber Erziehung und Diingung des Hopfens " (Hop 

 Cultivation and Manuring), Zeitsch/rift fUr das gesammte Brawwesen, 1898, 

 No. 4. 



