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To cultivate Hops

The Soil, &c.

The hop is planted on various soils, and chiefly in valleys. Hops are generally of the best quality from strong clay land. The crop, however, is there very precarious. Those on peat are much more productive, but are liable to be affected by the mould in some seasons, which reduces their value considerably. The best plantations are on a deep, loamy soil, where the produce of the latter and the quality of the former are sometimes obtained. Those which are grown on sandy and gravelly lands are seldom remarkable for either great produce or superior quality.

The plant is extremely liable to disasters from its first putting up in the spring until the time of picking the crop, which is in September. Snails or slugs, ants and flies, are formidable enemies in the first instance. Frosts are inimical to its growth, and the vines are frequently blighted even after they have reached the top of the poles.

Small green flies and other insects which make their appearance in the months of May and June, when the wind is about northeast, often greatly injure them, and they are subject to take damage by high winds from the southwest. The best situation for a plantation, therefore, is a southern aspect, well shaded on three sides either by hills or planting, which is supposed to be the chief protection that can be given them. To plant Hops.

In the winter time provide the soil and manure for the hop-ground against the following spring.

If the dung be rotten, mix it with two or three parts of common earth, and let it incorporate together till there is occasion to make use of it in making the hop-hills; but if it be new dung, then let it be mixed as before till the spring in the next year, for new dung is very injurious to hops.

Hops require to be planted in a situation so open that the air may freely pass round and between them to dry up and dissipate the moisture, which often destroys the middle of large plantations, while the outsides remain unhurt.

The hills should be eight or nine feet asunder.

If the ground be intended to be ploughed with horses between the hills, it will be best to plant them in squares, chequerwise; but if the ground is so small that it may be done with the breastplough, or spade, the holes should be ranged in a quincunx form. Which way soever is made use of, a stake should be stuck down at each of the places where the hills are to be made.

To choose Hops.

Be very particular in the choice of the plants as to kind, for if the hop-garden be planted with a mixture of several sorts of hops that ripen at several times, it will cause much trouble and great detriment.

The two best sorts are the white and the gray bind; the latter is a large, square hop, more hardy, bears more abundantly, but ripens later than the former. There is another sort of the white bind, which ripens a week or ten days before the common; but this is a tenderer and a less plentiful bearer, though it has this advantage, that it comes first to market. If there be a sort of hop you value, and would wish to increase, the superfluous binds may be laid down when the hops are tied, cutting off the tops and burying them in the hill, or when the hops are dressed all the cuttings may be saved, for almost every part will grow and become a good set the next spring. Seasons of Planting.

English planters approve the months of October and March. The most usual time of procuring the cuttings is in March, when the hops are cut and dressed. As to the manner of planting the sets, there should be five good sets planted in every hill, one in the middle, and the rest round about, sloping. Let them be pressed close with the hand and covered with fine earth; a stick should be placed on each side of the hill to secure it.

To form a New Plantation.

The best method is to have cuttings from approved stock, planted out the year before they are wanted, in the hop-ground; as the use of plants instead of cuttings not only gains a year, but the former are more certain to flourish. A small piece of moist land is sufficient to raise plants for many acres, and at little expense. If the ground be in grass, pare and dig in the pods; work the land with a spade, and set it out into ridges of three and a half yards wide, and two yards between each; having a strip of grass (called a pillar) next every ridge, and an open drain between every two pillars, the depth of which must vary according to the soil, some being less than one foot, and others nearly four feet in depth. Three rows of plants, or, as they are termed, hills, are made upon each ridge, which should intersect each other; they are generally two yards distant in the rows, so that about 1300 is the usual number of hills in a statute acre. Small sticks are proper to tie the binds up to the first year, then small poles for a year or two; the size of which should be gradually increased. Some set two poles to every hill, which is proper for ground producing luxuriant binds; but on clay land three poles are set in a triangular form to the hills on the two outside rows of each ridge, and only two in the middle

Many additional poles, longer than the rest, called catch-poles, are also set to take the binds as they run beyond the lesser poles.

Where the bind is weak, three heads are commonly trained up each pole; though two are better, if strong. If the ground intended for a new plantation is not clean from couch-grass, a complete fallow is essential, whether it be grass or stubble; and a crop of turnips may be taken to advantage, if the land is proper for their growth, and can be made clean, as hops are planted in March. row.

To take up Hop-Ground.

The following are termed the annual orders:- Digging the ground completely over; hoeing the earth from the hills, and cutting off the stock a little above the root, which are called pickling and cutting; poling, which is carrying the poles from the stacks, and setting them down to the hills with a round implement, shod with iron, and called a poy, having a crutch at the top, and a peg through the middle to tread upon; tying the binds round the poles with rushes, and pulling up the superfluous binds; hoeing the ground all over with a hoe of large dimensions; wheeling and laying manure upon every hill; covering the manure with the soil, which is done by scraping the ground over with a hoe, and is called hilling; and stacking, which is carrying and setting up the poles into heaps or stacks, after the crop has been taken.

Extra-works.

As the preceding are termed the ordinary, so the following are called the extra-works, as not being included in the yearly bargain with the men by the generality of planters, and some of them are done only by the very best managers. On clayey ground, either the earth ought to be bared off the hills, and a covering of good manure applied to them previous to digging, which will require from twelve to fifteen tons per acre; or from twenty to twenty-five tons of manure, or a greater quantity of fresh earth (when the ground wants condition) should be wheeled and spread all over the ridges. It is not improper, in some cases, to pursue these methods alternately; but on baggy and very rich ground the earth only can be applied with advantage. The drains should be scoured out yearly on very wet ground; and what is thrown out is always intermixed with the soil in digging; on drier soils this is done every second or third year, and on very dry land it is scarcely necessary to do it at all. Recruiting the stock by planting, where any hills have failed, is done at little cost in well-managed plantations, as there are seldom many at once in those. If there is any couch-grass, it should be dug out with threepronged forks in March, and carried off the ground. The renewal of poles requires from one to two hundred per acre every year. If, when the binds first appear, they are beaten by slugs, a handful of malt culm or saw-dust is sometimes laid round each hill, which they cannot travel over; and should flies or ants attack them, soot is the best preventive. The carrying in and setting catch-poles varies much as to number, as some set fewer than one hundred, and others five or six hundred per acre. Moving the drains and pillars is generally done once, but twice moving is better (whether the grass be made into fodder, or is suffered to fall into the drains for manure), as then no seeds scatter on the ground. Extra-hoe once before the hilling, and once after. After high winds many poles are broken down, which should be set up again soon Manure proper for Hop-Culture.

As to the manure most proper for the hop-culture, good stable dung is much used, and is preferred to the manure made by beasts at pasture, as the latter encourages ants on strong ground.

Woollen rags are the best for forcing a luxuriant bind, and if used with judgment, are excellent for clayey ground; but they are apt to make the hops small, if too many are used. Malt culm and dove manure are excellent, and one complete dressing with lime is very serviceable for strong ground.

To pick Hops.

When the crop is ripe, a proper number of pickers is procured, for whom are provided light wooden frames, called binges; they are clothed with hop-bagging, into which the hops are picked off the poles by women and children, having them brought by men, who take them up by cutting the binds about a foot above the ground, and drawing up the poles by an instrument called a dragon.

Each binge has from four to six pickers, and a man attends to one or two binges, according to the crop; he strips the binds from the poles as they are picked, and lays them in heaps ready for stocking; he also carries the hops to the kilns, if near; or to a cart, as they are measured from the binge. The number of binges employed vary with the crop and kiln-room; about one to an acre is usual. The hops are taken out of the binge with a basket which holds six pecks.

Another Method.

The most convenient way of picking them is into a long square frame of wood, with a cloth hanging on tenter-hooks within it, to receive the hops as they are picked.

They must be picked very clean, free from leaves and stalks; and as there shall be occasion, two or three times in a day, the frame must be emptied into a hop-bag made of coarse linen cloth, and carried immediately to the oast or kiln, in order to be dried: for if they should be too long in the bag they will be apt to heat and be discolored. If the weather be hot, there should no more poles be drawn than can be picked in an hour, and they should be gathered in fair weather, if it can be, and when the hops are dry; this will save some expense in firing, and preserve their color better when they are dried.

To dry Hops.