Cultivation and Management of Hops. 355 
syringe, to be used as the height of the plant and other circum- 
stances require. This engine, filled with the mixture, is pushed 
along each alley by three men, one of whom also pumps ; the 
other two take a hose each, which is long enough to enable them to 
wash two rows each. Two, three, or even four men are required 
to bring the mixture to the engine from the tubs at the nearest 
point on the outside of the hop-ground. The usual wash is com- 
posed of 28 lbs. of soft soap to 100 gallons of water, with J lb. 
of tobacco. Some use soft soap and water, without tobacco, 
as they think that tobacco kills the " negur," the larva of the 
ladybird or fly-gold ing Coccinella, which feeds upon aphides.* 
The cost of once washing is estimated at from 305. to 36^. per 
acre, being 18s. for soap, r2s. for labour, 6s. for tobacco. Growers 
who have a very small plantation use hydronettes, or small 
hand-syringes with a long hose which goes in a pail. 
Red Spider.] — The injuries done by this little insect, Acarus 
Telarius, had been, until quite recently, attributed to other causes. 
The peculiar appearance of the leaves of the hop, called in 
England " fire-blast," and in Germany " copper-burnt," produced 
by this mite, were thought to be due entirely to drought and 
excessive heat. It is only in very hot dry weather, that the red 
spider does much mischief. So it is easy to understand how the 
effect of its absorption of the juices of the plant came to be 
attributed to drought. In the unusually hot dry summer of 
1868, this spider did immense damage in England and on the 
Continent. The leaves turned brown, dried up, and came off 
the bine as if it were late autumn, and thousands of acres pro- 
duced nothing. Washing or syringing with plain water would 
stop their progress, did they not envelope themselves in a thick 
downy web ; not for food-providing purposes, like other spiders, 
but for protection from cold, wet, and other attacks. Mr. Bar- 
ling, of Maidstone, recommended in 1868 a solution of sulphur 
to be thrown up by the washing-engines. This was tried by Mr. 
Reeves, of Staplehurst, whose experience was " that it certainly 
killed the spider, but it was done too late to save the crop." 
Now that the cause of " fire-blast " is discovered, washing with 
this solution of sulphur will be generally adopted when the con- 
ditions of the temperature again favour an extraordinary develop- 
ment and increase of the red spider. J 
* I washed some hops in the last disastrous blight with soft soap and tobacco, 
and some with soft soap without tobacco. There was no difference in the very 
favourable results of these respective mixtures. 
t Latreille divides Acarida; into the following groups : — 1. Mites (Tromhidites] ; 
2. Ticka {Bicinites); 3. Water Mites (Ilijdrachnellx) ■ 4. Flesh Worms (Microph- 
thira). 
X The fumes of sulphur destroy the red spider in greenhouses and hothouses, 
and sulphur ointment kills the mite causing the itch. 
