472 RETURN OF MATERIAL TO THE HOP Root. 



been demonstrated, practical men had noticed that hops 
generally “break ’”’ more strongly in the spring where they 
are grown on string and not cut down at picking time than 
where they are grown upon poles, and it is considered one of 
the advantages of stringing over poling that cutting of the 
bines is avoided. In the garden of the South Eastern Agri- 
cultural College at Wye one of the experimental plots was 
formerly set with poles, and it had been noticed that on this 
plot the hops started more weakly than in the rest of the 
garden where the bines had been cut in the previous autumn. 
In order to ascertain it the withdrawal of material from 
bine and leaf of the hop to any material extent does take 
place as the plant ripens and dies down, certain. hills were 
marked, and hops, leaf, and bine were separated and weighed 
at the usual picking time, September 21st. Seme adjoining 
hills were left untouched till they were dead, and on November 
21st the bine and leaf was also collected and weighed. 
The material thus obtained was dried, sampled, and 
analysed, with the results set out below* :— 






Hops. ae | ce | Green | Dead 
| Leaves. | Leaves. | Bine. Bine. 
! 
Dry Matter % of Materialas Picked. | 22°5 | 30°33 | 58'1 | 261 S1°3 
Nitrogen % of Dry Matter - =itlge3 (A Oraglgmee 35a | 2°12, |. aQSa | "347 
Ash aft ss - - 7°96 124 | 20°2 | 6°04 4°83 
Lime - ae Si pl A 1°085 6°84 | 9°65 1°85 2°28 
Potash sa as - - 2°61 iter il | "420 | T°O4 “ES 
Phosphoric Acid a - - Tas "482 | 605 | °37 ‘o81 


To estimate from these figures the quantities per acre of 
each of the constituents that are removed from the land or 
returned to the roots it is necessary to know the weights of 
the hops, leaf, and bine respectively, for which purpose there 

*Since the above was written a paper has appeared, by Prof. Fruwirth and Dr. 
Zielstorff (Land. Versuch. Stat. LV., 1901, p. 9), giving corresponding analyses o 
hops grown in the garden of the Agricultural College at Hohenheim, Wurtemberg, 
rom which they arrive at a similar conclusion as to the return of nutrient material to 
the root. 
