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young, then none of thefe ufelefs binds (hould be plucked 
up, but (hould be wrapt up together in the middle of the 
hill. When the binds are grown beyond the reach of 
your hands, if they forfake the poles, you ftiould make 
ufe of a (land-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 muff have the fumm.er ploughing or digging, 
which is done by calling up with tire fpade fome fine 
earth into every hill, and a month after it mull: be again 
repeated, and the hills made up to a convenient bignefs, 
It is not at all to be doubted, but that a thorough wa¬ 
tering would be of very great advantage to hops in a hot 
dry hummer; 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 fcarcely practicable. When the hops blow, 
you Ihould obferve if there be any wild barren hills 
among them, and mark them, by driving a lharpened 
ftick into every fucli hill, that they may be digged up 
and replanted. 
Hops, as well as other vegetables, are liable to diftem- 
pers and dilafters, and among the reft to the ten. The 
Rev. Dr. Hales, in his excellent Treatife of Vegetable 
Statics, treating of Hops, gives us the following account 
of the ftate of hops in Kent in the year 1725, that he re¬ 
ceived from Mr. Auften of Canterbury, which is as fol¬ 
lows': “ In mid. April not half the Ihoots appeared above 
ground, fo that the planters knew not how to pole them 
to the beft advantage. This deleft of the Ihoot, upon 
opening the hills, was found to be owing to the multi¬ 
tude and variety of vermin that lay preying upon the 
roots ; the increafe.of which was imputed to the .long 
and alrnoft uninterruped leries of dry weather for three 
months before. Towards the end of April many of the 
hop-vines were infefted with flies. About the 20th of 
May there .was a very unequal appearance, dome vines 
being run feven feet, others not above three or four ; 
fome juft tied to the poles, and fome not visible; and this 
difproportionate inequality in their flze continued through 
the whole time of their growth. The flies now appeared 
upon the leaves of the forwardeft vines, but not in fucli 
numbers here as they did in mod other places. About 
the middle of June the flies increaled, yet not fo as to 
endanger the crop ; but in distant plantations they were 
exceedingiyjmultiplied; fo as to fwarm towards the end 
of the month. June the 27th fome fpecks of fen appeared. 
From this time to the 9th of July was very dry weather. 
At this time, when it was laid that the hops in molt 
parts of the kingdom looked black and fickly, and feemed 
pall recovery, ours held it out pretty well, in the opinion 
of the molt (kiiful planters. The great leaves were in¬ 
deed dii'coloured, and a little withered, ,and the fen was 
fomewhat increaled: From the 9th of July to the 23d, 
the fen increaled a great deal; but the flies and lice de- 
creafed, it raining much daily. In a week more, the fen, 
which leemed to be almoft at a Hand, was cbnliderably 
increaled, elbecially in thofe grounds where, it firfc ap¬ 
pealed. About the middle of Auguft the vines had 
done growing both in Item and branch, and the forwardeft 
began to be in the hep, the reft in bloom ; the fen con- 
tin:;.: d 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 Augult fome of the 
hops' were infefted with the fen, and whole branches cor¬ 
rupted by : :. Half the plantations had pretty well efcaped 
hitherto, and from this time the fen increaled but little; 
but Icveral days wind and rain the following week fo dif- 
torted 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 ol them were fo frnail, that they very little ex¬ 
ceeded the bignefs of a good thriving bur. We did not 
begin to pick till the 8th of September, which is eighteen 
U L U S. 459 
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 i6i. the 
hundred.” 
Dr. Hales gives us an account of the following experi¬ 
ment 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 lhady part of the garden, the pole ffill (landing; 
he (tripped the leaves off from one of thefe vines, and let 
their Items 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 car¬ 
ried it out o( the hep-ground into a free and open expo- 
lure ; 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 
companion of thofe in the middle of the ground, viz. be-- 
caufe, being much dried, their fibres harden former, and 
therefore they cannot grow fo kindly as thofe in the mid¬ 
dle of the ground, which, by lhade, are always kept moif- 
ter, and more ductile. 
The fame curious author proceeds as -follows : There 
being 1000 hills in an acre of hop-ground, and each hill 
having.three poles, and 'each pole three vines, the num¬ 
ber ot vines will be 9000, each of which perfpiring four 
ounces, the fum of ail the ounces perfpired by an acre in a 
twelve-hours day will be 36000 ounces 2= 1575000 grains 
=3 62907 cubic inches, or 220 gallons, which divided by 
6272640, the number of iquare 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 part of an inch deep, befides what eva¬ 
porated from the earth. And this quantity of moifture,. 
in a kindly ftate of the air, if daily carried off, is a fufii- 
cient quantity to keep the hops in a healthy ftate ; but 
in a rainy moift ftate of air, without a due mixture of dry 
weather, too much moifture hovers about the hops, fo as 
to hinder, in fome meafure, the kindly perfpiration of the 
ieaves, whereby the ftagnating Cap, corrupts, and breeds 
mouldy fen, which often fpoiis v,aft quantities of fiourilh- 
ing hop-grounds. This was the cafe in the year 1723, 
when for ten or fourteen days almoft continual rains fell, 
about the latter half of July, after four months dry wear 
ther, upon which the moft flourifliing and promifing hops 
were all infefted with mould, or fen, in their leaves and 
fruit, while the then poor and unpromifmg-hops efcaped, 
and produced plenty, becaufe they, being (mall, did not 
perfpire fo great a quantity as others, nor did they con¬ 
fine the perfpijed vapour fo much as the large thriving 
vines did in their fhady thickets. 
The planners obferve, that when a mould, or fen, lias 
once feized any part of the ground,-it foon runs over the 
whole; and that the .grafs, and ether herbs, under the 
hops, are infefted with it, probably, becaufe the (mall 
feeds of this quick-growing mould, which foon come to> 
maturity, are blown over the whole ground; which fpread¬ 
ing of the feed may be the reafon wjiy fome grounds are 
infefted with fen for feveral years fucceflcVely, viz. from 
the feeds of the laft yea'r’s fen. Might it not then be 
adviled to burn the fenny hop-vines, as foon as the hops , 
are picked, in hopes thereby -to deftroy fome of the feed 
of the mould ? Mr. Auften, of Canterbury, obferves fen 
to be more fatal to thofe grounds that ^re low and Ihel- 
tered, than to the high and open grounds ; to thofe that 
are (helving to the north, than to thofe fhelving to the 
fouth ; to the middle of grounds than to the outfldes; to 
the dry and gentle grounds, than to the moift and (tiff 
grounds. This was very apparent throughput the plan¬ 
tations where the land had the fame. workVnanlhip and 
heip bellowed upon it, and was wrought at the fame-time. 
But, if in either of thefe cafes there was a difference, it 
had a different effeft, and the low and gentle grounds, 
that lay neglected, were then feen lefs diftempered than 
the 
