1 lop Cultivation. 
237 
use of in Kent, being put on during the winter at a cost of from 
31. 15s. to 4 l. 10s. per acre. 
Of manures used in the spring and summer there are many 
kinds. Special hop manures are numerous, made of various pro- 
portions of supei’phosphate, kainit, nitrate of soda, or sulphate 
of ammonia, which hop planters had better manipulate for them- 
selves, as they will then know they are pure and in the desired 
proportions. Rape dust, however, is the most valuable manure, 
and by far the most generally adopted for summer priming. It 
appears to suit all localities, and gives a quick, continuous and 
rich supply of nitrogenous food to the plants just when they 
requii’e stimulating most. From 8 to 15 cwt. per acre are put 
on round the hills and dug or hoed in. Guano is also approved 
of in some localities, and nitrate of soda in dry seasons. In very 
many cases hop land is manured well in the winter, and again in 
the summer, particularly if there is any indication of weakness 
or flagging energy in the plants. 
Basic slag has been tried with some advantage in soils not 
abundantly supplied with phosphoric acid, as, for instance, those 
in the Weald of Kent and Sussex. As Sir John Lawes has 
pointed out, there can be no question concerning the efficacy of 
slag as a cheap substitute for superphosphate. 
Cultivation. 
Hop land is dug by hand in the late autumn and winter with 
the spud (fig. 4), and farm-yard manure, rags, shoddy, fish, and 
other heavy manures are dug in then. It is thought best by many 
planters to dig as early as possible, especially if there is much 
chickweed, Stellaria media , the most common and troublesome 
weed in hop plantations, which takes much out of the land in mild 
and open winter seasons. In some districts hop land is ploughed, 
Fig. 4.— Hop Spud. 
but as the poles are placed in conical stacks, like wigwams, at 
regular intervals upon the ground, a large part cannot be got at by 
the plough, nor can the spaces between the hills be touched — one 
way at least. Ploughing is a very unsatisfactory process, and in 
the end is nearly as expensive as digging, and should only be 
adopted when labour is scarce. Hop land is somewhat extensively 
ploughed in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Sussex. 
Directly the poles are up and the bines out of the way a large 
