1922.] 



Cultivation of the Hop Crop. 



1015 



the lime-content is poor then organic phosphates, such as those 

 contained in the guanos, hone meal or steamed bone flour will 

 be preferable. If the land is a heavy clay then a high-grade basic 

 slag (low-grade slags are generally very insoluble) may be chosen, 

 or soft-grinding mineral phosphates may be substituted. * 



Potash. — Potash manures like the phosphates should be 

 applied during early spring and worked well into the land ; when 

 well-made farmyard dung is freely applied little or no potash 

 manures are required on heavy land : but when shoddy displaces 

 dung or the hop-garden is on light soil then potash manures 

 must be used. There is little evidence to show which of the 

 potash fertilizers gives best results and when small quantities 

 only are being used the choice should rest with whichever potash 

 salt is cheapest to apply per unit of potash. If the dressings 

 of potash to be applied are large then the impurities in kainit 

 may possibly act deleteriously and in that case preference should 

 be given to either muriate or sulphate of potash. 



Special Hop Manures. — A hop-grower who, has a reasonable 

 knowledge of the functions and uses of artificial manures has 

 no need to buy special hop manures, which will always be 

 more costly than the pure manures, no matter how glowingly the 

 analyses of such special manures are set forth. On the other 

 hand, when a grower desires to apply a composite mixture of 

 manures, the help of the manure merchant may be profitably 

 accepted, both for information as to what manures can be advan- 

 tageously mixed, and for the actual mixing of them. Usually, 

 however, mixtures do not result in much economy, as the quan- 

 tities used in hop gardens are large and can therefore be 

 accurately distributed alone. 



Schemes of Manuring. — A few typical cases of manuring are 

 appended to illustrate the standard commonly adopted by 

 successful hop-growers. 



Scheme I. — For newly-planted hops on a brick-earth loam well supplied 

 with lime. 



30 to 40 loads of good farmyard dung, ploughed into land in autumn 



before planting. 

 10 cwt. superphosphate, broadcasted in March. 



5-10 cwt. fish guano or meat meal, distributed roft-nd the hills in April 

 and carefully forked in. 

 Scheme IT. — For newly-planted hops on stiff clay soil, deficient in lime. 

 30 to 40 loads of good dung, ploughed into land in autumn before planting. 



1 ton ground or quick lime ^ ,. . ., , , , . . . 



anc j I distributed on top of the ploughing 



10-20 cwt. high-grade basic slag j as earl >" as P°^ ibl(? - 



