Fifty Years oj Hop Farming. 
325 
last year 660,000 cwt. were grown, and the large importations 
of 1882, 1884, and 1885, together with the unfortunately low 
quality of the English hops caused by unpropitious weather, 
the mattock was used vigorously, and the acreage was reduced to 
what many think is about its normal and proper extent. 
Limited Extent of Hop-Land. 
It is believed that there is only a certain limited number of 
acres of land in England that will produce hops profitably. In 
the six principal hop-growing counties, the parishes in which 
hops are cultivated are pretty much the same now as they were 
in 1840, and even at a much earlier date. Their number has been 
increased in a very slight degree : as an instance of this, there 
were 290 parishes in Kent in which hops were grown at the 
commencement of this century. Now the number is 296. Togo 
further, it might be said that in the hop-growing parishes in 
these six principal counties, the land planted with hops is now 
pretty much the same as it was fifty years ago. As a rule, other 
land which has been planted with hops in times of prosperity 
and high prices has been grubbed in periods of depression. In 
short, the " fittest " land has survived. For example, there were 
about 7,500 acres of hop-land in Sussex in the decade ending 
1840. From 1872 to 1878 the acreage varied from 9,738 acres 
to 11,360. At this time there are only a little above 7,000 
acres. 
The hop districts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire are 
exceptional in having made and retained an important addition 
to their acreages since 1840. Then the extent of hop-land was 
6,000 acres, now it is nearly 10,000 acres. This is because the 
quality of the hops has been better during the last few seasons 
than in other counties, and brewers have taken a fancy to 
" Worcesters," especially for " dry-hopping " purposes ; and much 
improvement has recently taken place in their cultivation and 
management. 
Change and Progress. 
There is, perhaps, no branch of agriculture in which so 
many changes have occurred and so much progress has been 
made during the last fifty years, as in hop culture. And 
this applies not only to the treatment of the soil, the selec- 
tion of sorts, the use of manures and modes of preventing and 
remedying disorders caused by insects and fungi, to whose 
attacks the hop plant is eminently liable, but also to the 
preparation of the hops for market, in the methods of picking, 
drying, and packing. 
