53B 
Manaf/ement of Hops. 
great room for the workmen to sham their work, without its 
being observable in appearance, the small planter has the oppor- 
tunity of having the labour done more immediately under his 
own eye, and to see that it is well done; and as the additional 
expense of trenching is not an annual one, but spread over the 
whole time the ground continues in plant — 20 or perhaps 30 
years — it is not of that importance it at first appears. I have 
before, in speaking of soils, intimated that old meadow or pasture, 
where it can be obtained, is very desirable to plant with hops, 
which is very much adopted in the Weald of Kent and Sussex ; 
and when the plant is worn out to take one crop of corn, and lay 
the land down again with proper seeds for meadow (it making 
better meadow-land than before broken up for hops), such being 
the covenants of many leases and agreements, and there are in- 
stances where every acre of meadow on a farm has at one time 
or other been planted with hops. If meadow or pasture land is 
trenched for hops, instead of being skimmed, ploughed, and sub- 
soiled as before stated, it should be done on the same principle, 
that is, after having opened the trench and loosened the bottom 
a spit deep, to dig off the turf and put on it ; then dig as deep a 
spit as the spud will take, which lay on the tuif spit, shovel out 
the bottom of the trench and throw on the top, breaking it well 
together ; then again loosen the bottom and proceed as before. 
After the ground has been prepared by any of the before-men- 
tioned processes, and made level and fine by harrowing, rolling, 
(Sec, it is then fit for the next process, which is 
Setting-out and Planting. 
The general mode of planting hops is to place the hills at equal 
distances, either square or triangular, at distances as the judgment 
or fancy of the planter may direct him, varying generally from 
6 to 7 feet. I have seen grounds planted in rows, at 8 or 9 feet 
distance between the rows, and the hills 3 or 4 feet distant from 
each other in the rows, but for what purpose I never could learn, 
unless it was for the convenience of the worst of all systems — 
ploughing between the rows instead of digging. I would advise 
every young hop-planter never to slick a plough in his hop-ground 
after it is planted before it is grubbed up ; it tears and injures the 
roots, closes the ground with the tread of the horses, laying it in 
a state that requires more labour to get fine than when dug, and 
making it more unkind all the summer. It was much the prac- 
tice from eighty to one hundred years back, when labourers were 
scarce, as the most economical, but ever since I can remember it 
has been condemned by all good managers, and is now almost but 
not entirely exploded. Of the two modes, square or triangular, 
I prefer and recommend the latter for several reasons — first, be- 
