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ftrength j and great care is to be taken not to over- 
pole a young or weak ground, for that will draw the 
ftock too much, and weaken it. If a ground be over- 
polled, you are not to expect a good crop from it ; for 
the branches which bear the Hops will grow very 
little, till the binds have over-reached the poles, 
which they cannot do when the poles are too long. 
Two fm all poles are fufficient for a ground that is 
young. 
If you wait till the fprouts or young binds are grown 
to the length of a foot, you will be able to make a 
better judgement where to place the largeft poles-, 
but if you (lay till they are fo long as to fall into the 
alleys, it will be injurious to them, becaufe they will 
entangle one with another, and will not clafp about 
the pole fo readily. 
Maple or Afpen poles are accounted the belt for 
Hops, on which they are thought to profper belt, be- 
caufe of their warmth ; or elfe, becaufe the climbing 
of the Hop is furthered by means of the roughnefs of 
the bark. But for laftingnefs, Aiken or Willow poles 
are preferable ; but Cheftnut poles are the moll dura- 
ble of all. 
If, after the Hops are grown up, you find any of 
them have been under-polled, taller poles may be 
placed near thofe that are too Ihort, to receive the 
binds from them. 
As to the tying of Hops, the buds that do not clafp 
of themfelves to the neareft pole when they are grown 
to three or four feet high, muft be guided to it by the 
hand, turning them to the fun, whofe courfe they 
will always follow. They muft be bound with wi- 
thered Rufhes, but not fo clofe as to hinder them from 
climbing up the pole. 
This you muft continue to do till ail the poles are 
furnilhed with binds, of which two or three are enough 
for a pole ; and all the fprouts and binds that you 
have no occafion for, are to be plucked up but if the 
ground be young, then none of thefe ufelefs binds 
Ihould be plucked up, but fhould be wrapt up to- 
gether in the middle of the hill. 
When the binds are grown beyond the reach of your 
hands, if they forfake the poles, you fhould make ufe 
of aftand ladder in tying them up. 
Some advife, that if the binds be very ftrong, and' 
overgrow the poles very much, you ftrike off their 
heads with a long fwitch, to increafe their branching 
below. 
Towards the latter end of May, when you have made 
an end of tying them, the ground muft have the fum- 
mer ploughing or digging, which is done by calling 
up with the fpade fome fine earth into every hill, and 
a month after it muft be again repeated, and the 
hills made up to a convenient bignefs. 
It is not at all to be doubted, but that a thorough 
watering would be of very great advantage to Hops 
in a hot dry fummer but it is fo much charge and 
trouble to do this, that unlefs you have a ftream at 
hand to flow the ground, it is fcarce praflicable. 
When the Hops blow, you fhould obferve if there be 
any wild barren hills among them, and mark them, 
by driving a fharpened flick into every fuch hill, that 
they may be digged up and replanted. 
Hops as well as other vegetables, are liable to dif- 
tempers and difafters, and among the reft, to the fen. 
The Rev. Dr. Hales, in his excellent Treatife of Ve- 
getable Statics, treating of Hops, gives us the follow- 
ing account of the ftate of Hops in Kent in the year 
1725, that he received from Mr. Auften of Canter- 
bury, which is as follows : 
In mid April not half the fhoots appeared above 
ground, fo that the planters knew not how to pole 
them to the beft advantage. 
This defeft of the fhoot, upon opening the hills, 
was found to be owing to the multitude and variety of 
vermin that lay preying upon the roots ; the increafe 
of which, was imputed to the long and almoft uninter- 
rupted feries of dry weather for three months before. 
Towards the end of April many of the Hop-vines 
were infefted with flies. 
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About the 20th of May there was a very unequal ap- 
pearance, fome Vines being run feven feet, others not 
above three or four-, fome juft tied to the poles, and 
fome not vilible and this dilproportionate inequa- 
lity in their flze, continued through the whole time of 
their growth. 
The flies now appeared upon the leaves of the for- 
warded Vines, but not in Inch numbers here, as they 
did in molt other places. About the middle of June 
the flies increafed, yet not foas to endanger the crop 
but in diftant plantations they were exceedingly mul- 
tiplied, fo as to fwarm towards the end of the month. 
June the 27th fome fpecks of fen appeared. From 
this day to the 9th of July was very dry weather. At 
this time, when it was faid, that the Hops in moft 
parts of the kingdom looked black and ficklv, and 
feemed paft recovery, ours held it out pretty well, in 
the opinion of the moft fkilful planters. 
The great leaves were indeed difcoloured, and a lit- 
tle withered, and the fen was fomewhat increafed. 
From the 9th of July to the 23d, the fen increafed a 
great deal ; but the flies and lice decreafed, it raining 
much daily. In a week more the fen, which feemed 
to be almoft at a {land, was confiderably increafed, 
efpecially in thofe grounds where it firft appeared. 
About the middle of Auguft the Vines had done 
growing both in Item and branch, and the forwarded: 
began to be in the Hop, the reft in bloom ; the fen 
continued fpreading where it was not before perceived, 
and not only the leaves, but many of the burs were 
alfo tainted with it. 
About the 20th of Auguft fome of the Hops were in- 
fefled with the fen, and whole branches corrupted by 
it. Half the plantations had pretty well efcaped hi- 
therto, and from this time the fen increafed but little; 
but feveral days wind and rain the following week fo 
diftorted them, that many of them began to dwindle, 
and at laft came to nothing ; and of thofe that then 
remained in bloom, fome never turned to Hops ; and 
of the reft which did, many of them were fo fmall, 
that they very little exceeded the bignefs of a good 
thriving bur. 
We did not begin to pick till the 8 th of September, 
which is eighteen days later than we began the year 
before } the crop was little above two hundred on an 
acre round, and not good. The beft Hops fold this 
year at Way-hill, for 1 6 1 . the hundred. 
The Rev. Dr. Hales, in his aforefaid Treatife, gives 
us an account of the following experiment that he 
made on Hop-vines. He tells us, that in July he cut 
off two thriving Hop-vines near the ground, in a 
thick ihady part of the garden, the pole ftill Handing ; 
he ftripped the leaves off from one of thefe Vines, and 
fet their ftems in known quantities of water in little 
bottles ; that with leaves imbibed in a twelve hours 
day four ounces, and that without leaves three- 
fourths of an ounce. 
He took another Hop-pole with its Vines on it, and 
carried it out of the Hop-ground into a free and open 
expofure •, thefe imbibed and perfpired as much more 
as the former in the Hop-ground, which is, doubtlefs, 
the reafon why the Hop-vines on the outfldes of 
plantations, where they are moft expofed to the air, 
are Ihort and poor, in comparifon of thofe in the 
middle of the ground, viz. becaufe being much dried, 
their fibres harden fooner, and therefore they cannot 
grow fo kindly as thofe in the middle of the ground, 
which, by lhade, are always kept moifter, and more 
duflile. 
The fame curious author proceeds as followeth : Now 
there being icoo hills in an acre of Hop-ground, and 
each hill having three poles, and each pole three Vines, 
the number of Vines will be 9000, each of which 
perfpiring four ounces, the fum of all the ounces per- 
fpired by an acre in twelve hours day will be 36000 
ounces = 15750000 grains — 62007 cube inches, or 
220 gallons, which divided by 6272640, the number 
of fquare inches in an acre, it will, be found, that the 
quantity of liquor perfpired by all the Hop-vines will 
be equal to an area of liquor as broad as an acre, and 
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