322 
Fifty Years of Hop Farming. 
hops are mentioned in the English statutes in 1552, in which 
year some privileges were granted to " hop grounds." 
Even in these early days hop planting was held to be profit- 
able, as shown in a work upon the subject believed to be the 
first ever published, by Reynolde Scott, entitled A Perfite 
Platforme of a Hoppe Garden and necessarie instructions for the 
making and maintenance thereof, with notes and rules for refor- 
mation of abuses commonly practised thei'ein, very necessarie and 
expedient for all men who have in any icise to do with Hoppes. 1 
In thi3 curious and valuable little book it is stated that " one 
acre of ground and the third part of one man's labour, with 
small cost beside, shall yealde unto him that ordereth the same 
well fortie marks yearly, and that for ever." 
Gervase Markham has a chapter in his Way to get Wealth, 
published in 1668, upon " The Inriching of all manner of barren 
ground and so to make it fruitfull to bear Hopps ; " and R. 
Bradley, " Professor of the University of Cambridge and F.R.S.," 
published in 1729 a quaint little work Miches of a Hop-Garden 
Explained. He says in this, " For even ground that was never 
before esteemed worth a shilling an acre per annum is rendered 
worth forty, fifty, or sometimes more Pounds a year by planting 
Hops judiciously upon it." He adds, " I have known Hop- 
grounds that have cleared above 50L yearly per acre to be sold 
at the first hand." 
Thomas Tusser, " gentleman," who wrote Five Hundred 
Points of Good Husbandry, in 1557, describes the best soils for 
hops and advocates their cultivation in his peculiar poetry. 
In the Annals of Agriculture, by Arthur Young, published 
from 1783 to 1805, several accounts appear concerning hop 
cultivation, and estimates are given of the expense of producing 
hops which will be quoted later on. » 
Marshall, also, in the Rural Economy of the Southern Counties, 
gives much interesting matter as to hops in Hants, Kent, Surrey, 
and Sussex. 
Hop-producing Counties. 
The principal hop-producing counties have been from time 
immemorial Hants, Hereford, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and 
Worcester, with respective acreages varying according to the 
state of the hop trade. In these six counties there has been 
a comparatively large permanent acreage, while in sixteen or 
seventeen other count ies hops have been tried from time to time : 
1 " Imprinted in London by Henrie Denham, dwelling in Paternoster Rowe, 
at the Signe of the Starre, 1576: dedicated to the Right Worshipftdl Mayster 
William Lovelace, Esquire, Sergeaunt at the Lawe." 
