896 



Cultivation of the Hop Crop. 



[Jan.^ 



the land. Care must be taken that the last furrows next to the 

 hills are not too deep, or too many hop roots would be cut. 



The next operation consists in digging the " shps " between 

 the hills where the plough has been unable to go, and at the 

 same time the " hills " are opened for cutting. 



Thorough spring cultivation should be given during March, 

 April and May, whilst the soil is dry enough for tillage. This 

 both kills weeds and aerates the soil. Spring cultivation should be 

 above all things deep. Once in three or four years it is a good 

 plan to use a steam cultivator at a depth of 12 to 15 in. ; this not 

 only provides for deep aeration but also facilitates drainage in 

 the following winters and enables the soil to store up a greater 

 quantity of water for the needs of the plant during summer. 

 Another point to emphasize about spring cultivation is the fact 

 that at this season it is not desirable to make the surface soil 

 too fine ; weeds can be more easily killed in a coarse-textured soil 

 and, in the event of heavy rain, this sinks into the soil instead 

 of being retained on the surface, making it sticky. 



As summer proceeds the depth of tillage should be gradually 

 lessened and automatically the texture will get finer ; this is now 

 desirable, since the fine soil at this season will form a mulch for 

 the retention of water within the soil. Frequent cultivations 

 are necessary as the surface gets beaten down by rain or trodden 

 with other operations, for the purpose of aeration as well as to 

 keep down weeds, but it is preferable to omit the cultivations 

 rather than damage the texture of the soil by cultivating when 

 too wet. 



It is a moot point how long cultivation should be continued 

 and probably the time should be varied according to the season, 

 soil and quantity of manuring, etc., but in theory at any rate 

 cultivation should be continued so that aeration may facilitate the 

 production of plant food in the soil until the time when the hops 

 are full grown. From this time onwards the supply of plant food 

 should cease, because ripening and especially colouring of the 

 hops is facilitated by withholding moisture and nitrogenous plant 

 food from the roots. Eate cultivation, by increasing the supply 

 of plant food in the soil, tends to encourage the growth of new 

 ** bine " and " burr " so that the hops ripen in two crops. It 

 also tends to delay the ripening of the plant generally. In 

 practice it is difficult to decide at what stage to stop cultivation, 

 and an interesting piece of investigation might be carried out 

 upon this point. 



(To he continued.) 



