54 
Hop Cultivation. 
the foot. For a plantation of 20 acres, with suitable oasts and 
cooling rooms to dry and cool the crop in one month, for a first- 
class growth, the following varieties are recommended : — 5 acres of 
Cooper's White, or 3 Coopers and 2 Jones's ; 6 acres Mathons ; 6 
or 7 acres of Goldings, and 2 or 3 Grapes ; but this distribution of 
sorts must, in a measure, be governed by the quality of the land, 
that variety being most largely planted which is best suited to 
the soil. The crop ought to be secured in three weeks, ot cer- 
tainly not more than a month ; and it is most important to have 
an early sort, such as Cooper's White or Jones's, to commence 
with, then will follow your Mathons, then the Goldings, and 
lastly, the Grapes, a hardy sort, which will hang well for the last 
picking. Jones's are serviceable to use up old poles. The 
writer has seen a ton an acre on 7-feet poles. If, as is mostly 
the case in Sussex, one variety only be planted, you must begin 
to pick before your hops are ripe, or have a considerable propor- 
tion brown before you can finish. 
If the planter should determine on a piece of old tillage, I 
recommend him to plough 10 inches, and subsoil as deep as he 
can ; the ploughing completed, he will proceed the same as if it 
had been a meadow, with this exception, that after the sticks are 
truly set, he should dig holes 2 feet in diameter, and 2 feet deep, 
placing the top or best soil on one side, and the bottom soil on 
the other side of the hole obliquely, so that the heaps may not 
interfere with replacing the sticks when the holes are refilled. 
Good dung or rather a rich compost should be wheeled on, and a 
fork or shovelful mixed with the best soil after the hole has been 
half filled with good soil from the surface ; this being finished, 
you must readjust your sticks, and when your soil has had time 
to settle, you may proceed to plant in the manner before described. 
On no account bury your manure. Should the weather be favour- 
able, and your roots get a start, they will require two poles to 
each hill 6 to 7 feet long, and if the season be good, a crop of 
2 or 3 cwt. an acre may be grown ; if cuttings are planted you 
lose a year. 
Potatoes and mangold are frequently planted between the rows, 
and an ox-cabbage between each hill ; this will, by many, be 
condemned, but much depends on the condition of the land and 
the disposition of the planter to make compensation to the soil 
for what has been taken out by the green crops by a dressing of 
manure, which must be applied in the winter and dug in. 
Turnips may be planted if the land admits of their being fed 
off ; and this plan, if oil-cake or corn be given, will manure the 
land at a cheap rate, greatly to the benefit of the hops. 
February and March are the months best suited for throwing 
down and cutting, the land being first ploughed or dug. If the 
