Tlie Cultivation of Hops. 
731 = 4^5 
foi, which they assimilate and convey to the plants.* At this 
the earth is lightly skimmed with the nidgetts to kill the 
ling weeds, and the hills are hoed round with plate-hoes. 
Fig. 3. — Tlie new Iron Nidgett. 
ite white frosts in the spring are frequently as injurious to the White frosts 
hop-bines, as they are to the tender vine-shoots in the "li""""^ 
ch vineyards. Early dressing or cutting is not, therefore, ^'^'"^'^^ plants, 
rally practised, as hop-shoots injured by frost are not only 
ed in their growth, but are more liable to be attacked by 
up des, which are nearly as much dreaded by English planters 
as e destructive phylloxerae by the French and German wine- 
en ers. Enormous losses have been caused by these aphides, 
wh h have in some years reduced in a few weeks a crop, esti- 
mafd at 8 or 10 cwts. per acre, to a miserable return of 1 cwt. 
peicre. This occurred in 1854, in 1860, and in 1869, generally ; 
in erefordshire and Worcestershire in 1876, and in 1877 in parts Aphis-blight : 
of 3nt. Syringing the leaves and branches carefully with soft- '"i' 't- 
soa and water and a little tobacco-juice is the only remedy 
agiiist these insects, dislodging the winged aphides, the first pro- 
'f"! ors, destroying the lice that are reproduced by gemmation 
untless generations, and cleansing the leaves of their excreta, 
^11' n as " honey-dew." j This is a costly and troublesome 
pre !ss ; but it has well repaid planters in some seasons, who 
ha^ had it carried out thoroughly. | Many other insects do much Insect foes, 
nuuief to hop-plants, especially wireworms (^Elater lineatus), 
&e'c (^Haltica), jumpers (^Tettigonia) ; and in hot seasons red 
•piirs {Acarus Telarius) are infinitely destructive. Pieces of 
ma^old or potato are put round the hills as traps for the wire- 
here are planters, however, who maintain that it is right to cultivate deeply 
ii. he fibres are running, and think it is beneficial to tear them up wholesale, 
■80 i t bushels of these rootlets may be seen where the nidgetts are cleared, 
t vringing proved comparatively inefficacious in this last season, when 
ilight ravaged the plantations of East and Mid Kent. 
Iiis is done with garden engines with double hose, worked between the 
r hops by three men, two of whom direct the hose to the plants, while one 
. 28 lbs. of soap and J lb. of tobacco are used with 100 gallons of water, 
1 e expense of one washing is about 21, 2s. per acre. 
