Hop Cultivation. 
The cokes we get from Abberley and Pensax, in Worcester- 
shire, are highly charged with sulphur, which will account for so 
little being added in these counties. Its only value is to give 
brilliancy to the sample, and, if used in excess, brewers object to 
it as affecting the fermentation of their worts. 
It has been the practice in Worcestershire and Herefordshire 
to make eight sacks out of one piece of cloth of 36 yards, and 
the weight of the pockets when filled run from 1 cwt. 1 qr. to 
1 cwt. 2 qrs. It is my practice to make seven sacks from a 
piece, and I am thereby enabled to get 1 cwt. 2 qrs. to 1 cwt. 3 qrs. 
into a pocket, and I would respectfully recommend my brother- 
planters to do the same. A heavy pocket has many advantages 
over a light one ; you pay less for weighing, porterage, and 
warehouse rent, and you get your hops more quickly into con- 
sumption. 
It was formerly the practice to roll, riddle, and otherwise break 
and spoil good hops ; this silly practice is in a great measure 
exploded. Plant the best sorts, such as Coopers, Mathons, and 
Goldings, ; pick them clean, dry them properly, and put them 
into the pockets as whole as possible. By breaking the hop you 
lose a large quantity of the pollen, which contains the most valuable 
brewing properties. 
The cost of hop cultivation per acre may be estimated as 
follows : — 
£. it d. 
Yearly charge for poles 5 0 0 
Ploughing down 0 10 0 
frigging slips (or portion not ploughed) 0 5 0 
Cutting, picking up, and burying roots 0 4 0 
Spreading poles 020 
Pitching or setting poles 0 12 0 
Tying 0 8 0 
Nidgetting or scuffling 4 times 100 
Harrowing 4 times 0 6 0 
Forking round hills and hilling up 0 5 0 
Stripping and piling poles 08 0 
Keshan >ening broken poles 0 3 0 
Ploughing up before winter 0 10 0 
Manuring, if with dung, 20 loads per acre, at 8s 8 0 0 
If manured in summer 4 0 0 
Ladder tying ..020 
21 15 0 
If you dig instead of plough, 15s. per acre extra .. .. 0 15 0 
Total 22 10 0 
Lower Wick, Worcester. 
