140 
METHOD OF CULTIVATING THE HOP. 
plough or spade. The mode of planting is generally in rows 
six feet apart, and the same distance in the row. By some, 
five, six, or seven plants, are placed in a circular form, which 
circles are distant five or six feet from each other. The 
plants or cuttings are procured from the most healthy of the 
old stools ; each should have two joints or buds : from the 
one which is placed in the ground springs the root, and from 
the other the stalk. Some plant the cuttings at once where 
they are to remain, and by others they are nursed a year in 
a garden. An interval crop of Beans or Cabbage is gene- 
rally taken the first year. Sometimes no poles are placed 
at the plants till the second year, and then only short ones 
of six or seven feet. The third year the Hop generally 
comes into full bearing, and then from four to six poles, 
from fourteen to sixteen feet in length, are placed to each 
circle, or one pole to each plant, if cultivated in straight 
rows. The most durable timber for poles is that oi the Span- 
ish Chesnut. 
“ The after culture of the Hop consists in stirring the soil, 
and keeping it free from weeds ; in guiding the shoots to the 
poles, and sometimes tying them for that purpose with bass 
or withered rushes ; in eradicating superfluous shoots which 
may rise from the root, and in raising a small heap of earth 
over the root to nourish the plant. 
“ Hops are known to be ready for gathering when the 
chaffy capsules acquire a brown colour, and a firm consist- 
ence. Each chaffy capsule, or leaf calyx, contains one seed. 
Before these are picked, the stalks are detached, and the 
poles pulled up, and placed horizontally on frames of wood, 
two or three poles at a time. The Hops are then picked off 
by women and children. After being carefully separated 
from the leaves and stalks, they are dropped into a large 
cloth hung all round within the frame on tenter hooks. 
When the cloth is full, the Hops are emptied into a large 
sack, which is carried home, and the Hops laid on a kiln to 
be dried. This is always to be done as soon as possible after 
