1098 



Cultivation of the Hop Crop. 



[Mar., 



The Butcher System (Figs. 1 and 2). — This system was 

 introduced by the late Mr. Tom Butcher, of Selling, and was 

 the first system of wire-work to be adopted in England. 

 Originally the system was applied to a hop garden, the hills of 

 which were planted rectangularly 6 ft. 6 in. apart in each direc- 

 tion, making about 1,000 hills per acre. The poles were placed 

 in such a way that 2 hills were situated between them in 

 every row of hops so that 500 poles were required per acre. The 

 poles were 12 ft. out of the ground and three horizontal wires 

 were attached to each row of poles; the bottom wire was 6 in. 

 above the ground; the middle wire was between 3 ft. 6 in. and 

 4 ft. high, and the top wire was fixed about 6 in. below the top 

 of the poles. The wires in each case should be fixed with staples 

 which should be driven in obliquely to the grain of the pole. 



Three strings were tied to each hill in such a way that they 

 spread out like a fan from a point on the bottom wire just above 

 the " hill " to be equally spaced upon the middle wire imme- 

 diately above, and then sloped parallel and equidistant from 

 each other to the top wire on the next row of poles. Since 

 the slope of each iwv of strings is in the same direction, the 

 pull on the wire-work, especially when the growth of hops is 

 heavy, is very great and all in the same direction; in order to 

 withstand this, specially stout cross-wires have to be fixed to 

 each row T of poles at right angles to the alleys and anchored 

 substantially at the outside of the garden. The slope of the 

 string should preferably be aw T ay from the prevailing wind; 

 since this is generally from the south-west the strings should 

 slope towards ncrth-east; with this slope the bines are not so 

 badly blown from the string in windy weather, nor are the hop 

 cones so badly bruised by a wind when reaching maturity. 



Butcher's original specifications have naturally been modified 

 in many w^ays by different growers; thus the hops in the rows 

 are frequently 7 ft. and even 7 ft. 6 in. apart so as to allow a 

 wider space between each string and prevent so much matting 

 together. The alleys also are frequently 7 ft. to 8 ft. wide to 

 allow more room for the passage of horses with tillage imple- 

 ments, hop-washers, etc., but the wider rows mean that the 

 slope of the strings becomes flatter and the hops may fail to 

 encircle the string with each spiral in their growth so that training 

 becomes very expensive; in order to obviate this the height of 

 the poles and the top w T ire is frequently raised to 14 ft. or 

 even 16 ft. 



The advantages of the Butcher system are considerable and 

 it is still largely adopted. In particular the hops are well 



