228 
Hop Cultivation. 
suited for planting with hops. Their situation, aspect, and soil 
are almost always good, as our forefathers planted their fruit 
trees in the best and most sheltered spots. The land should 
be ploughed deeply, with a subsoil plough following, or it 
should be trenched deeply. The former method is preferable 
and less costly. When land is trenched, unless the superficial 
soil is very deep, it often happens that a tenacious or heavy 
subsoil is brought to the surface, while the good upper soil is 
buried, so that the texture of the soil is spoilt aud probably 
made unkindly for working. The land is set out for planting 
with a line in which, at equal lengths, according to the number 
of hills required to the acre, stitches of red worsted are put. At 
each point indicated by the worsted stitch, a stick is placed in 
the ground as the centre of the hill. The “ setting out ” must be 
performed with mathematical accuracy for cultivating with horses 
or steam between the rows and, especially in these days when 
mildew and blight are general, for the passage of sulphurators, 
and of horse-washing machines, whose delivery would be affected 
by the plants being out of true line. 
Planting should be done in October and November. Square 
holes are made with a spade, with the sticks placed by the 
setter-out as their centres, and the sets are pressed in firmly 
with the hand and foot, an inch or two of the sets being 
above the ground. A good spit of farm-yard manure is put 
into each hole where the land is stale and poor. Before being 
planted the sets must have their roots well trimmed and the 
dead bines cut off. In the spring, a small pole is put to 
each hill and the bines are tied to it. The ground between the 
rows and close round the hill must be kept clean by nidgetts 
(horse-hoes) and hand hoes. It is better not to put any crop, 
as turnips, potatoes, &c., between the rows, for hops are a most 
exhausting crop. Poles, two or three to a hill, and twelve, 
fourteen, or sixteen feet long, according to the variety of hop, 
are carried on to the ground during the following winter, and 
in the ensuing summer the hop plants will bear a good crop if 
well-manured and not over-poled. 
Dressing. 
Dressing, or cutting, is usually done in March, or early 
in April, when the ground will work down well, and before 
the plants have sent forth shoots. The hills 1 are opened, and the 
1 In the summer, the bases of the plants are “ earthed up ” by putting four 
or five shovels of earth over them among the bines, to protect the “ crowns ” 
from wet, and to encourage a growth of fibre for propagation. Hence the term 
“ hill.” 
