1014 



Cultivation of the Hop Crop. 



[Feb., 



One other reason may render the use of quick-acting 

 nitrogenous manure advisable, namely, if the growth of the 

 plant receives a check caused by severe aphis attack or a spell 

 of cold east wind: quickly available nitrogenous manure is the 

 most certain way of bringing the plant again into active growth. 



The choice in the use of quick-acting nitrogenous manures is 

 wide, ranging from immediately available nitrates (nitrate of 

 soda or nitrate of lime) through such manures as sulphate of 

 ammonia or calcium cyanamide to guanos of various kinds, 

 organic in origin, more or less quick in action and containing 

 larger or smaller quantities of phosphates. If the case is one 

 in which an immediate stimulus is required, as for instance 

 when a garden is short of bine or an attack of aphis has checked 

 growth, then one of the nitrates should be used; if the garden 

 is well-supplied with lime and sulphate of ammonia is cheap per 

 unit of nitrogen then this should be used in preference to the 

 nitrates : if the maximum effect is not required for two or three 

 weeks, then preference may perhaps be given to meat meal or 

 other guano because its action may be expected to be more pro- 

 longed. In general it is desirable to avoid the use of heavy 

 dressings of nitrates late in the season to Golding hops on good 

 quality land because this causes the cones to be coarse, especially 

 as to the sterile bracts, but these manures may be advantageously 

 used for Fuggle hops. 



In any case such artificial nitrogenous manures should be well 

 worked into the soil, so that they may be incorporated with the 

 moist soil in which the roots are growing ; in general the manures 

 should be distributed evenly over the full width of the alley, 

 but during the first two seasons before the hop roots have spread 

 throughout the soil, better results will be obtained by spreading 

 the manure within a few feet of the hop plants. 



Phosphates. — Phosphatie manures after application are stored 

 in the eoil without risk of loss by washing, and remain available 

 for the use of plant roots; practice in the application of these is 

 very different from that of nitrogenous artificials. Phosphatie 

 manures should generally be applied in excess of crop require- 

 ments during the winter or early spring season so that they may 

 be incorporated and intimately mixed with the soil by spring 

 cultivations. The actual choice of phosphate manure will depend 

 upon the nature of the soil and especially upon the lime-content 

 of the soil. If the lime-content is good then superphosphate or 

 dissolved bone manures will generally produce bests results : if 



