CULTIVATION. 227 



alone should be entrusted with this task, an unskilful 

 worker doing more harm than good. 



Topping or cutting off the tips of the bine is a precau- 

 tion adopted to restrict the longitudinal growth of the plant, 

 and has been practised from time immemorial : in fact, it 

 is absolutely necessary in low-frame gardens. It is also 

 advisable in other systems (pole or high-frame), where the 

 hops are observed to be developing too freely in point, of 

 height as the result of high fertility of soil, favourable 

 weather or the use of highly nitrogenous manures. The 

 first result is a stagnation of the sap, which therefore flows 

 more abundantly into the laterals ; and it is only after 

 some little time that the buds of the uppermost leaves put 

 forth new leaders, these being, however, more sluggish in 

 their growth than the tips of untopped bines. 



Topping should not be performed too early. As a rule 

 in high-trained gardens it should be resorted to when the 

 bines reach the tops of the poles at an earlier date than 

 usual. Very early or very late topping is disadvantageous 

 to the crop, the amount being reduced in the former case, 

 and uniform ripening prevented in the other, thus lowering 

 the quality of the produce. In lower frames where the 

 operation is one of necessity, the time of performance de- 

 pends on the length of bine best suited to the particular 

 system in use. 



Finally, the practice of stripping the bine of its leaves 

 must be referred to. The removal of healthy, green leaves, 

 which are really the workshops wherein the constructive 

 material, so important for the entire organism of the plant, 

 is elaborated, is an erroneous proceeding, which even 

 scarcity of fodder will scarcely justify. Hence the custom 

 of stripping, pursued as a regular thing in many places, 

 must be strongly condemned as an unnatural and abusive 

 treatment of the hop plant. 



