342 Cultivation and Management of Hops. 
tiveness, and to cause its premature decay. These combined 
causes are leading growers to reorganise their plantations upon a 
new system. In the first place, by gradually grubbing the very 
old grounds, many of which are practically effete from old age, 
the exhaustion of specific chemical elements from the soil, and 
unnaturally early picking. Secondly, by introducing a well- 
arranged succession of altogether earlier sorts to follow each 
other in regular rotation.* 
It is quite clear that new plantations must be raised upon such 
principles as will meet the changed requirements of the market ; 
for it is utterly useless to endeavour to "level up" the old 
plantations to these altered conditions, and, independently of 
these, it is beginning to be understood that the once dearly 
cherished pet grounds of a century old and upwards are very 
costly luxuries. In the rare cases where a large percentage of 
the hills of such grounds do not die away annually, and where 
the stock is still fairly sound, there is a large decrease of pro- 
ductive power, with a greater predisposition to blight and 
mould, and diminished ability to grow away from their attacks. 
There are many of these almost historically famous hop-grounds 
where a large proportion of the hills die away each year, so 
much so as to make a fair crop impossible. As many as from 
5 to 10 per cent, of the hills in some old Golding grounds have 
to be renewed every year. I have a Golding ground, with 
an almost fabulous reputation for fruitfulness in past years, 
whose first planting not even the "oldest inhabitant" can re- 
member. The average annual amount of hills to be renewed is 
200 out of 4000 hills, or just 5 per cent. As sets planted to fill 
up do not bear fruit until the second year, 10 per cent, of the 
hills in this old ground are actually non-productive each season. 
The quality of the fruit is very fine when, by happy accident, 
the ground gets through a blight or the mould ; but the quantity 
obtained from the strongest hills is always very small. The 
situation is most suitable ; the soil is a rich, friable, deep mould, 
with a substratum of hassocky ragstone, or limestone, which is 
the best possible soil for hops, affording perfect drainage and 
being naturally rich in the mineral constituents necessary to the 
plant. The best bedded sets have been obtained from several 
planters for filling up this ground for the last ten years, without 
causing any very marked decrease of dead hills or increase of 
fruitfulness. As probably nearly every hill has been replanted 
in the last twenty years by this yearly process of filling-up, the 
* Tn the Hereford hop district growers are generally improving their planta- 
tions by planting early sorts of better quality and character. 
