Manaffcment of Hops. 
533 
must be full of water to the surface before the water will flow off 
at top, the roots of the hops will be continually saturated during 
the winter, and consequently thev will be continually decaying ; 
and although they may be annually repaired, it will not answer 
the planter's purpose to continue the ground in plant longer than 
from S to 12 years: such has been the case, and hops have been 
grubbed at earlier periods than 8 years, in consequence of the stock 
having decayed from the wet; but there is scarcely a planter now, 
who would think of planting a wet piece of land, but would 
undcrdrain it on some plan or other ; yet such is the difference 
of opinion still existing on the nature and plan of underdraining, 
that I have frequently seen it very injudiciously done. But as 
draining is not the subject of this Essay, I shall be deviating too 
far from the path I have marked out to go into any mirmte argu- 
ment upon it. 
The soils adapted for the growth of the best sorts of hops, 
such as the Goldings and Canterburys, are deep light loams, or 
deep soils of a mixed nature, resting on porous subsoils, such as 
the sandy loams on a subsoil of chalk in the district around Can- 
terbury, and in the vicinities of Rochester and Gravesend ; but it 
is only where there is a great depth of mould that it would be 
right to plant hops on a chalk subsoil, for where the chalk is near 
the surface the plant will not flourish. The deep-moulded and 
stone shattery soils of the green-sand, or ragstone range of hills 
that extend from east to west nearly through the county of 
Kent, are peculiarly adapted for the growth of the finer varieties 
before mentioned, and there is no district where there are so 
many grown, or where, taking the quality of the hop and the 
quantity grown per acre, they are grown to such perfection ; 
in East Kent and parts of West Kent, on the chalk formation, 
where there is a good depth of soil, they are grown of somewhat 
superior quality, in consequence of the hop being smaller, but 
not so great a weight per acre ; the former growing in crop years 
from 10 or 12 to 15 and 20 cwt. per acre, and sometimes more, 
the latter seldom exceeding from 6 or 7, to 8, 10 or 12 cwt. So 
congenial is the rocky subsoil of this range of hills, not only for 
the growth, but duration of the hop- plant, that there are manv 
grounds which are known to have been in plant more than 100 
years, and are at this time in full perfection : there is a ground 
in the parish of Barming, near Maidstone, now in the occupation 
of John Whitehead, Esq., and for many years before of James 
Ellis, Esq., which I have known for more than 40 years, which 
when I first knew it had been planted more than 100 years; it 
is noted for growing large crops of good quality, and still con- 
tinues to do so. There are many other grounds that I know, in 
several parts on the ragstone, that have been in plant nearly as 
