1104 



Cultivation of the Hop Chop. 



[Mar., 



from the nature of the case this method of regulating hop- 

 growth can only be carried out at the beginning of the season 

 and little or no effort seems to have been made to regulate 

 growth at any other season save by the amount of plant food 

 supplied. This is not, however, the only possibility. For 

 instance, it would seem that growth might be easily and perhaps 

 more satisfactorily regulated by checking the bines at or about 

 the level of the middle wire — say, 4 ft. high — by breaking off 

 the heads of the strong shoots only. The weaker stems would 

 then grow normally but the broken stems of the strong shoots 

 would produce two or more fine short-jointed side-shoots which 

 could be used to perfect the furnishing of the strings. By this 

 means growth could be accurately controlled at least a month 

 later in the season. It is not suggested that any grower should 

 adopt this suggestion on a large scale without trial, but it seems 

 to be a fertile line for investigation. 



Tying usually commences in the urst or second week in May, 

 a start being made with the early varieties. The work is best 

 executed by women, though sometimes a gang of boys may be 

 utilised; in any case, it requires to be very carefully super- 

 vised or irreparable damage may result. The operation con- 

 sists in distributing the bines to the strings provided for each 

 hill so that two or three bines, as desired, may be put to each 

 string. Great care must be taken to see that each string to the 

 hill is equally furnished and tying will have to be repeated 

 several times before all the strings receive their quota of bines. 

 As soon as this is done all surplus shoots are pulled out so 

 that growth may be concentrated in those which have been 

 put to the strings. In cases where a hill has died or is very 

 weak and blank strings would otherwise result, extra bines 

 should be led from neighbouring hills to cover these strings in 

 such systems of wire-work as the Butcher, where middle wires 

 are provided. 



By the beginning of June all the strings should be furnished 

 and the hops should have reached the middle wire and be 

 growing vigorously; meantime all surplus shoots as well as any 

 runners should be constantly pulled. By the time the heads 

 are beginning to reach the top wire the lowest leaves on the 

 bines are stripped; this operation is carried out chiefly because 

 the lower leaves are inaccessible to the sprayers and so tend 

 to become breeding-grounds for the hop aphis. Stripping is 

 later continued to the height of the middle wire and sometimes 

 a foot or two beyond, but it should not be forgotten that the 



