Cultivation and Management of Hops. 
349 
1 cwt. .3 qrs. 4 lbs. per acre extra on the patented plan, and in 
quality worth 10,?. per cwt. more than those of the same sort 
grown upon upright poles. In a Colegate ground, picked after the 
severe gale of wind, we found on the new plan 4 cwt. per acre 
extra ; these were sold at 5/. 8s. per cwt. ; those adjacent of the 
same sort, grown upon the upright poles fetched 5Z. 2s. per cwt." 
Tlie first cost of poling an acre in this way is given as 
52/. 35. 4</., as against Mr. Coley's estimate of 41/. 65. for the 
old mode, Avhile the after expense per acre for keeping up the 
poles for fourteen years is estimated to average 15.s. per acre in 
the former, and in the latter instance 4/. This applies to 
Golding grounds poled with best poles. Mr. Coley has invented 
a whole set of implements and tools suited for the working of his 
system, among which may be mentioned a long-handled bill 
hook with prong attached, for cutting the bines high up and 
pushing them off the uprights, and a 3-wheeled dung-cart for 
use between the rows. 
Lately it has been the custom of some growers at picking time 
to cut the bines growing on the ordinary poles, 4 or even 5 feet 
from the ground, and to push the upper part of the bine Avith the 
hops upon it over the poles, with forked sticks, as the bine when 
cut high and thus left on the pole is supposed not to bleed so 
much as if cut low and left on the ground. 
Hops are now poled as early as possible, that the bines may be 
tied up to the poles before they run along the ground. It is 
usual to pull out the most forward or rank growing, called 
locally " pipy " bines, and to tie two or three bines according to 
fancy to each pole. It is now understood that it is a mistake 
to put more than 3 bines to a pole. After tying, the ground is 
dug close round the hills about a foot and a half from their 
centres, to loosen the soil which cannot be touched by the 
nidgetts — implements something like horse hoes, onl}' wider, 
and having more tines, which are drawn by one or two horses in 
the alleys, between the rows of plants, to pulverize the soil and 
to kill the weeds. The first nidgetting is generally done with two 
horses, to get the soil deeply moved, afterwards one horse will 
suffice. Deep nidgetting is continued at intervals until the middle 
of June or the end of July, when the " fibres " begin to " work " 
and run all over the ground. After this time it is a huge mistake, 
as a rule, to nidgett deep. To kill seedling weeds, and to break 
the crust formed by the beating of rain and the baking of the sun, 
a much more shallow nidgetting is performed, or a hop harrow, 
a nidgett with shorter pointed tines, is used. The form and make 
of nidgetts have been much improved, many planters have iron 
ones which are better and more workmanlike looking implements, 
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