54 
HOP. 
I think, however, our own method of application is the safest for 
the plant. 
The U.S.A. plan is to add one gallon of water, in which a quarter 
of a pound of soft-soap (or any other coarse soap preferred) has been 
well dissolved, boiling or hot, to two gallons of petroleum or other 
mineral oil. The mixture is then churned, as it were, together by 
means of a spray-nozzled syringe, or double-action pump, for ten 
minutes, by means of which the oil, soap, and water are so thoroughly 
combined that the mixture settles down into a cream-like consistency, 
and does not, if the operation has been properly performed, separate 
again. This is used diluted with some three or four times its bulk of 
water for a watering; if required for a wash, at least nine times its 
bulk is needed,—that is, three gallons of “ Emulsion,” as it is termed, 
make thirty gallons of wash. Warning is given that care must be 
taken with each new crop to ascertain the strength that can be borne 
by the leafage ; this of course varies with the age of the leaves, as well 
as the nature of the crop. 
In my own experiments with this mixture I increased the quantity 
of soft-soap, and for Hop-plants I should consider it would be desirable 
to double the proportion of soft-soap and lessen that of the paraffin to 
at least a sixth. 
An addition of some amount of paraffin to soft-soap wash has been 
shown to be serviceable by the experiments of Mr. Ward at Stoke 
Edith in 1888, and in the last season. The proportions used by him 
for large quantities are 12 lbs. of soft-soap and half a gallon of paraffin 
to 100 gallons of hot water, the mixture stirred well together and used 
when cool; the nearer boiling that the water is used the better the 
paraffin mixes. This wash is found to be very effective in killing the 
Aphides without injuring the plant or the burr. 
Quassia has answered well in several localities as an addition to 
the common soft-soap wash. The Hop-bines which I examined per¬ 
sonally in the neighbourhood of Banning in the early summer looked 
very clean and well after this application. The proportion used was 
6 lbs. of quassia and 3 lbs. of soft-soap to 100 gallons of water. 
At Rodmersham, Sittingbourne, the proportion used is mentioned 
by Mr. M. Mercer, Jun., as 4 lbs. of quassia and 8 lbs. of soft-soap to 
120 gallons of water ; sometimes equal weights of quassia and soft- 
soap are used to the above quantity of water, but the first solution is 
recommended as good. 
Mr. Walter Arnold, of Frant, Tunbridge Wells, writes :—“ With 
regard to the quantities of soap and quassia used and method of 
mixing, we use 1 lb. soft-soap (best procurable) to 12 gallons of water, 
and 1 lb. quassia to 10 gallons of water—making 22 gallons wash. 
We use steam from the engine for boiling the quassia and dissolving 
