1010 



Cultivation of the Hop Crop. 



[Feb., 



knowledge by continual experiment, more especially in spraying, 

 thinning, and the overcoming of biennial cropping. 



In recent times of scarcity the grower of quantities of cooking 

 apples undoubtedly scored, but the future prospect of fierce 

 competition from so many countries surely seems to warrant 

 increasing attention to high quality keeping dessert apples — 

 apples which need never fear a glut. 



****** 



CULTIVATION OF THE HOP CROP. 



II.— MANURING. 



Arthur Amos, M.A., 

 School of Agriculture, Cambridge. 



The hop crop involves so many other costly operations that it 

 is of fundamental importance to manure adequately so that a 

 fall crop may be realised; the novice will, therefore, require 

 plenty of pluck to buy and use a sufficiency. By this it must not 

 be assumed that manuring cannot be carried to excess, indeed this 

 is often done with disastrous results as regards ripening, and 

 disease ; nevertheless manuring must be very heavy. 



The first point to study is the soil upon which the hope are 

 to be grown ; its physical properties must be carefully studied by 

 observation ; the depth of soil and the character of the subsoil 

 must be examined with a view to deciding the extent of the 

 feeding area of the hop roots both for plant food and especially 

 for water — there is little point in manuring a crop heavily when 

 the water supply will limit the crop: finally the chemical 

 characters of the soil — those which determine the supply of plant 

 food — must be known: these may be ascertained chemically, 

 provided the interpretation of the analysis is put in the hands 

 of someone who understands both soil analyses and something 

 about hop-growing — or ascertained by the results of manurial 

 experience upon similar soil, or by direct experiment on the field. 

 The items of plant food in the soil which chiefly interest the 

 hop-grower are the same for all other crops as : — lime, organic 

 matter, nitrogen, phosphates, potash. 



The lime content of the soil is a matter capable of quick and easy deter- 

 mination by the chemist, and since it is a matter of great importance should 

 always, except when the soil is definitely known to be calcareous or chalky, 

 "be chemically determined. The advantages of an abundant supply of free 

 lime in the soil are many and varied : in tl^e first place it is very beneficial to 



