334 
Fifty Years oj Hop Farming. 
aphides are left upon the plants they will quickly produce 
legions to disseminate fresh mischief. If the operation of wash- 
ing is commenced early and is well performed, and repeated 
when necessary, an aphis blight, which of old had such terrors, 
can be avei-ted. 
Red spiders, Tetrani/chus telarius, have appeared in hop 
plantations within the last twenty-five or thirty years. In some 
seasons, especially in a dry summer, they have done considerable 
harm. They are checked, in a degree, by washing with quassia 
and soft-soap solutions. 
" Fleas," Haltica humuli, very similar to the turnip-flea beetle, 
or turnip " fly," are more numerous than in days of yore, and 
are to some extent routed by dressings of soot and lime. 
Another comparatively new pest is the " Jumper," a species 
of the Cercovidr.e known as EuacantJius interruptus, which makes 
its appearance in June, and injures the plants by piercing the 
stems and sucking out their juices. Twenty-five years ago this 
insect was hardly known. Now it frequently does very much 
harm. It is circumvented by tarred boards being held near the 
poles, so that when these are tapped smartly the " Jumpers " 
take leaps into the tar. 
There is yet another insect not known as injurious to hop- 
plants until the last twenty years, which also pierces the bines 
in many places, causing the sap to flow so much as to weaken 
the plants. It is a species of " plant-bug," described as Lygus 
nmheUatarum. Against this attack but little can be done except 
by forcing injured plants with manure. 
Mould or Mildew, 
caused by a fungus, is the most deadly and insidious enemy of 
hop-plants. Though this disorder was known at the beginning 
of the century, and even earlier, being termed " fen," it was, as 
it appears from Marshall, 1 principally prevalent in East and Mid- 
Kent. About, fifty years ago mould chiefly affected Golding hops 
on certain Kentish soils. Within the last thirty years it has 
spread into all the hop-growing districts, though to a less extent 
in Worcestershire and Herefordshire than in the other counties. 
The spread of this mildew coincided with that of other 
mildews, whose appearance in many countries was almost simul- 
taneous. For instance, the potato mildew, the terrible Phyto- 
phihora infestans, was first seen in Europe in 1844. The vine 
mildew, Oiditim Tuclrri, began to devastate the French and 
German vineyards about 1 846. Since this date the coffee 
1 Rural Economy of the Southern Counties. \iy W. Marshall. 17t<0. 
