Fifty Years of flop Farming. 323 
but in none of these has the number of acres exceeded 600 
during the last fifty years. For some time there were from 
300 to 400 acres of hop land in Nottinghamshire in what was 
known by the Inland Revenue officials as the North Crays 
district. 1 Arthur Young states that there were about 200 acres 
of land planted with hops in Suffolk in 1782. This acreage 
was maintained *p to 1840, and at one time was nearly equal to 
GOO acres, but since then it has gradually decreased. At the 
present time there are only twenty-nine acres in Suffolk. About 
seventy years ago there was a movement to make hop planta- 
tions in Essex, whose soil and climate were thought to be con- 
genial for the growth of hops. At no time, however, was the 
acreage in any way important, and now the cultivation has 
entirely ceased. 
The acreage of hop-land in Shropshire has varied within the 
last fifty years from 60 to 110 acres; in Berks from 30 to 10 
acres ; in Gloucestershire from 50 to 4 acres, its present 
acreage. With regard to the other counties where hop-growing 
has been tried, their acreages of hop-land have never exceeded 
thirty acres. 
The Acreage of Hop-Land. 
According to the Agricultural Returns for 1889, the acreage 
of hop-land in the various hop -producing counties was as 
follows : — 
County 
Kent . 
Berks 
Gloucester 
IT.VXT3 
Hereford . 
Notts 
Acreage in 1833 
.. 35,487 
10 
4 
. 2,005 
6,850 
16 
County 
i Salop 
Suffolk . 
Surrey 
Sussex 
"Worcester 
101 
29 
2,101 
7,282 
2,939 
57,724 
There have always been great and somewhat sudden fluctu- 
ations in the acreage of hop-land, on account of the precarious 
character of this crop. At the beginning of the eighteenth 
century there were about 11,000 acres in the United Kingdom 
planted with hops. By 1750 the number of acres had reached 
17,000. In 1775 there were close upon 21,000 acres. At the 
beginning of the present century there were 35,000 acres, and 
the acreage varied between this number and 50,000 acres during 
the following forty years. Fifty years ago there were only 
1 "Beastwood Flat in Askham, Nottinghamshire, is considered the flower 
of the North Cravs, where often 20 cwts. per acre were gathered."— The Hop 
Farnur, by E. J. Lance, 1838. 
y 2 
