332 
Fifty Years of Hop Farming. 
from pole to pole, instead of the ordinary poles put in as helpers, 
and to train weakly bines up until they are strong enough to 
make the turns to enable them to twine round their proper 
poles. In other ways this string is of the greatest service to 
hop planters for training. 
Tying. 
There has not been much change in the manner of tying 
hops 1 to the poles. Nothing better than the time-honoured 
rushes has been discovered fortius purpose. More care is taken 
to pull out rank and forward bines before the tyers go to work, 
and far more attention is given to fastening the leading shoots 
to the ends of the poles when they have arrived there, in order to 
prevent the bines from slipping down. This is termed ladder- 
tying, as the tyers have to mount upon ladders. Hop-tying is, 
as a rule, done by women. Men are set on when the bines grow 
very rapidly. 
Attacks of Insects and Fungi. 
Enemies of the hop plants have increased during the past 
fifty years in an even greater proportion than those of other 
plants. Modes of preventing their attacks and remedies 
against them have been devised of more effect and advantage 
than in most other cases, owing to the value of the crop, and 
the habit of growth and mode of cultivation of the plants, 
which facilitate the use of remedial measures. 
Aphides are the worst foes of the hop planters. History shows 
that there have been periodic appearances of these insects ever 
since hop-growing was adopted in England. Before 1840 such 
visitations were not so frequent as in these later years. They 
were, however, far more disastrous, as no remedies, or, at least, 
no remedies of any efficacy, were known, so that the crop was 
often utterly ruined. Now, in ordinary circumstances, ordinary 
weather being given, the planters can rout this enemy by means 
of washing, or syringing, the infested plants with solutions noxious 
to insects. 
In most seasons of the last decade aphides have appeared, 
and hop-washing has become almost a regular part of hop-, 
cultivation. 
Now that it has been demonstrated that the eggs of the Hop 
Aphis, Fhorodon hitmttli, are laid upon the plum, damson, and 
other trees of the Prunus tribe, it is considered that the large 
1 It may bo mentioned lierc that planters endeavour now to prevent the bine 
coming too early by "dressing" the plant-contres later. Bines that are early 
aro apt to be injured by white frosts, 
