566 
Management of Hops. 
Mould. 
This is a disease more mysterious than any T have named, 
the origin and history of which would, in the hands of a person 
acquainted with it, I have no doubt, like the hop-fly, form an 
essay of itself. What I practically know of it is, that it is a 
more partial disease than the aphis blight, for a ground may be 
so blighted with the mould as not to grow a single hop worth 
picking, and another within half a mile of it may grow a full crop 
of hops. The aphis blight generally spreads over considerable 
districts, and sometimes nearly all over the kingdom the same 
year. The mould is always most prevalent in moist and warm 
summers, and more peculiar to some varieties of hops than others. 
The Goldings are more subject to it than the Grape; and some 
soils are more subject to it, Mid-Kent more than the Weald or 
Sussex. It is a much greater blighter of the planter's prospects 
where it falls than the aphis, for in the latter, if the crop he grows 
is less, it is in some degree made up by the greater price he gets 
for what he does grow : not so with mould; the effects of that, being 
generally partial, are seldom so extensive as to affect the price. The 
disease is in some degree contagious, and may be wafted with the 
wind from one ground to an adjoining one ; some attribute it to 
high manuring, others to certain descriptions of manures, but I 
have seen grounds quite the reverse very mouldy. 
Hop Picking. 
Having gone through the system of management, &c., from the 
commencement of planting up to the time of picking, although 
some things of minor importance may have escaped my notice, I 
have endeavoured not to omit anything that might be useful to 
those who are uninitiated in the culture and management of hops. 
I will now, with the same view, as briefly as the subject will admit, 
proceed to detail the system of management after the hops are 
grown. As soon as the hops are ripe, and will, as it is termed, 
stand the fire, which is ascertained by the closing up and firmness 
of the hop, when the seed becomes firm and the outside of it brown, 
and the general appearance indicates ripeness, picking should 
commence. Every planter should be careful to secure as many 
of the strangers who annually flock to the hop-districts for pick- 
ing as he may require, over and above the number of residents he 
may have engaged, suiting the number altogether to his crop and 
convenience lor drying, calculating not to exceed a month in pick- 
ing, for, although he may have the early and backward varieties, a 
month at all times will be quite long enough, and if it can be done 
in three weeks it would be desirable, for if hops are picked before 
