724 = 458 
The Cultivation of Hops. 
the acreage has been gradually added to year by year, with 
comparatively few exceptions. 
The counties in The counties of England in which hops are principally grown 
^^jhich hoi|s^ are j^j-g Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Worcestershire, and 
Yi'ted^ Herefordshire. There are a few acres in Nottinghamshire, Shrop- 
shire, Essex, Suffolk, and Gloucestershire ; but the great pan 
of the hop plantation is in the first-named six counties. 0 
Kent has the these, Kent, in which county hops were first grown in England 
largest acreage, j^^^ ^^^e largest acreage. According to the ' Agricultura 
Returns,' there were 45,984 acres of hop-land in Kent in 1877, a: 
against 44,755 acres in the previous year. The county of Susse: 
ranks next to Kent, having 11,057 acres in 1877, showing a sligh 
decrease of 118 acres from the returns of 1876. In Herefordshire 
Hampshire, Worcestershire, and Surrey, there were, respectively 
5839, 3156, 2329, and 2536 acres in 1877. Kent hops— mor. 
especially Kent Goldings, whose strobiles are small, of a delicat 
colour, and abounding in lupulin — are considered the best, am 
command the highest prices, being most highly esteemed by th 
brewers for pale ales, as well as for ales for exportation ; am 
Goldings grown in East Kent are preferred to those producec 
in the middle part of Kent, which, in their turn, rank highe 
than those grown in other districts ; though Farnham Golding 
are particularly choice, and have a reputation among the brewer 
in the western part of England somewhat similar to that of th 
famous hops grown within the limits of the Bavarian town o 
Spalt, or of those produced near Saatz in Bohemia. 
The geological Hops are grown in Kent chiefly upon the loams and cla 
formation upon loams of the Hythe Beds and the Sandgate Beds of the Lowe 
plant^thrh^s''' Greensand formation, which soils are especially suited to thei 
in Kent. growth ; as well as upon the Thanet Beds and Woolwich Beds 
and the deeper soils superimposed upon the chalk in the easier: 
part of the county. Upon the beds of the Lower Greensam 
Great age of formation, many of the hop-grounds are over 100 years old, an' 
hop-grounds in jn a few instances much older than this. In these old sround 
^^^^ ' there is a certain percentage of dead plants, which are rcnewe 
each year. In the Weald of Kent, the various soils of the heav 
Wealden Clay, of the Wadhurst Clay, and of the Tunbridg 
Wells Sand, are well suited to the growth of the coarser kind 
of hops, and yield much larger crops than the other soils of thi 
county, though the value of the produce is 20 per cent, undf 
that of the East and Mid Kent hops. Grapes, Jones', and Col( 
gates are the sorts of hops usually grown here. The two fir; 
named are coarse hardy sorts with large strobiles. Colegat( 
are very prolific and hardy and less liable to bliglit and moul 
than other sorts, having strobiles smaller than Goldings, with 
somewhat rank flavour not unlike that of some American hops 
i 
