Management of Hops. 
551 
Dressing or Cutting, 
which is done by a boy or woman opening around the stock of 
the hill with a small narrow hoe or pecker, a little below the 
crown of the hill ; then a man follows with a knife similar to a 
pruning-knife and a small hand-pecker, with which he clears out 
the earth on the crown of the hill between the sets or shoots of 
last year that were tied to the poles, and which, from having earth 
put on them the preceding summer, swell out to four or five 
times their original size, and form what we call sets or cuttings ; 
and it is the cutting them off at the right part that should be par- 
ticularly attended to, or great injury may be done : it is therefore 
necessary that the person cutting them should ascertain exactly 
where the crown of the hill is, that he may not cut them too low 
or too high ; the place where they should be cut off is between 
the crown of the hill and the first joint, for it is around the set 
close to the crown where the best and most fruitful bine comes. 
If the set is pared off down too close to the stock or crown it takes 
away the part from Avhere that bine comes, as little buds are 
seen ready to shoot forth at the time of cutting, which if cut off 
the bines come weakly and few ; on the other hand, if the set is 
cut off above the first joint, which sometimes will be the case if 
the man in cutting does not pay the attention to it he ought, 
the bines which come from that or any other joint higher up the 
set grow fast, but are coarse, hollow, or what we call pipey, and 
unproductive ; all such should be discarded at the time of tying : 
consequently the operation of cutting or dressing, on which the 
future well-doing of the plant so much depends, is not left so 
much to the judgment or skill of the operator as to his care and 
attention. Many planters have their hops dressed by the day, 
paying extra wages to persons in whom they can confide to do it 
with care. After all the old bine and runners, as the roots and 
small rootlets near the surface are called, are cut and trimmed off 
clean, some fine earth is pulled over the crown and a circle made 
round with the hand-pecker to intimate where the hill is before 
the young shoots appear. If sets are required to plant a new 
ground or for sale, such as have two or more joints are selected ; 
but where it is intended that sets should be saved for planting, 
the ground should be looked over the previous summer, and such 
hills as are not true marked, as well as the male hills, that no 
sets be cut from the former, and that the latter are not mixed 
with the others. The time for cutting is as soon as the ground is 
sufficiently dry in the spring, and it should be completed by the 
25th of March, but it depends much on the forwardness of the 
spring, for if the young shoots are far advanced it is not so well. 
Digging may be done any time during autumn, winter, or spring 
