William Fream

“ An idea long persisted among hop-growers that nitrate of soda was an unsafe manure for hops, being likely to produce rank growth of bine at the expense of quality and even quantity of hops. During recent years, however, owing very largely to the results of these experiments, and of corresponding experiments based upon these, which have been carried out abroad, hop farmers have much more freely availed themselves of the aid of this useful manure ”

“ The use of potash salts, on most soils, is probably not needed when good dung is freely used; but where this is not the case it is safer in most seasons and on most soils to give a dressing of potash salts. On some soils their aid should on no account be dispensed with.
Experiments in hop-manuring have also been conducted in connexion with the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent. The main results have been to demonstrate the necessity of a liberal supply of phosphates, if the full benefit is to be reaped from applications of nitrogenous manure. ”

“ The adoption of the roller floor is another great advance in the process of hop-drying, for this, used in conjunction with a raised platform for the men to stand on when turning, prevents any damage from the feet of the workmen, and reduces the loss of resin to a minimum. The best results are obtained when exhaust fans and the roller floor are associated together. In such cases the roller floor, which empties its load automatically, pours the hop cones into the receiving sheets in usually as whole and unbroken a condition as that in which they went on to the kiln. ”

“ The variety known as Fuggle’s, a heavy-cropping though slightly coarse hop, has been much planted in the Weald of Kent, and in parts of Mid Kent where the soil is suitable. In very old hop gardens, where there has been no change of plant for fifty or even one hundred years in some instances, except from the gradual process of filling up the places of plants that have died, there has been replanting with better varieties and varieties ripening in more convenient succession ”

“ Picking is better done than was formerly the case. The hops are picked more singly, and with comparatively few leaves, and the pickers are of a somewhat better type than the rough hordes who formerly went into Kent for “hopping.” Kent planters engage their pickers beforehand, and write to them, arranging the numbers required and the date of picking. Many families go into Kent for pea- and fruit-picking and remain for hop-picking. ”

“ The system is cheaper in the long run than that of taking down the poles every year, and the wind does not blow down the poles or injure the hops by banging the poles together. In another method, extensively made use of in Kent and Sussex, stout posts are placed at the ends of each row of plants, and, at intervals where requisite, wires are fastened from top to top only of these posts, whilst coco-nut-fibre strings are fixed by pegs to the ground, close to each hop-stock, whence they radiate upwards for attachment to the wires stretching between the tops of the posts. ”

“ Much of the hop land is ploughed between the rows, as labour is scarce, and the spaces between are dug afterwards. It is far better to dig hop land if possible, the tool used being the Kent spud. The cost of digging an acre ranges from 18s. to 21s. Hop land is ploughed or dug between November and March. After this the plants are “dressed,” which means that all the old bine ends are cut off with a sharp curved hop-knife, and the plant centres kept level with the ground. ”

“ The hop-wash of soft soap and quassia, so effective against aphis attack, is of little avail in the case of red spider. Some success, however, has attended the use of a solution containing 8 ℔ to 10 ℔ of soft soap to 100 gallons of water, with three pints of paraffin added. It is necessary to apply the washes with great force, in order to break through the webs with which the spiders protect themselves. Hop-washing is done by means of large garden engines worked by hand, but more frequently with horse engines. ”

“ The hops are from nine to ten hours drying, after which they are taken off the kiln and allowed to cool somewhat, and are then packed tightly into “pockets” 6 ft. long and 2 ft. wide, weighing 11/2 cwt., by means of a hop-pressing machine, which has cogs and wheels worked by hand. Of late years more care has been bestowed by some of the leading growers upon the drying of hops, so as to preserve their qualities and volatile essences, and to meet the altered requirements of brewers, who must have bright, well-managed hops for the production of light clear beers for quick draught. ”

“ As the county of Kent has always taken the lead in hop-growing in England, and as it includes about two-thirds of the hop acreage of the British Isles, the recent developments in hop cultivation cannot be better studied than in that county. ”

“ The condition of the soil and the degree and distribution of rainfall during both the previous autumn and the winter, as well as in the spring itself, produce such varying conditions that it is almost impossible to frame general rules. ”

“ Tying, Poling and Picking.—Tying the bines to the poles or strings is essentially women’s work. It was formerly always piecework, each woman taking so many acres to tie, but it is found better to pay the women 1s. 8d. to 2s. per day, that they may all work together, and tie the plants in those grounds where they want tying at once. The new modes of poling and training hop plants have also altered the conditions of tying. ”

“ In the summer, rape dust, guano, nitrate of soda and various patent hop manures are chopped in with the Canterbury hoe. Fish guano or desiccated fish is largely used; it is very stimulating and more lasting than some of the other forcing manures. ”

“ Much attention is required to keep the bines in their places on the poles, strings or wire, during the summer. This gives employment to many women, for whose service in this and fruit-picking there is considerable demand, and a woman has no trouble in earning from 1s. 6d. to 1s. 10d. per day from April till September at pleasant and not very arduous labour. The hop-picking follows, and at this women sometimes get 4s. and even 5s. per day. This is the real Kent harvest, which formerly lasted a month or five weeks. ”

“ Manuring.—Manure is applied in the winter, and dug or ploughed in. London manure from stables is used to an enormous extent. It comes by barge or rail, and is brought from the wharves and stations by traction engines ”

“ The results of modern investigation show that it is very largely to the presence and proportion of soft resin that hops owe their preservative value, although the quality of hops is by no means wholly dependent on this one feature. ”

“ Without this great immigration of persons, variously estimated at between 45,000 and 65,000, the crops of hops could not be picked; and fruit-farmers also would be unable to get their soft fruit gathered in time without the help of immigrant hands. ”

“ It is a perennial plant, producing annually several long twining roughish striated stems, which twist from left to right, are often 15 to 20 ft. long and climb freely over hedges and bushes. The roughness of stem and leaves is due to lines of strong hooked hairs, which help the plant to cling to its support. The leaves are stalked, opposite, 3-5 lobed, and coarsely serrate, and bear a general resemblance to those of the vine, but are, as well as the whole plant, rough to the touch; the upper leaves are sometimes scarcely divided, or quite entire. ”

“ The soft soap serves as a vehicle to retain the bitterness of the quassia upon the bines and leaves, making them repulsive to the aphides, which are thus starved out. Another pest, the red spider, Tetranychus telarius—really one of the “spinning mites”—is most destructive in very hot summers. ”

“ The plant, therefore, would retain a substantial store of these constituents for the following year’s growth if the bine were left. Chemical analyses have shown that about 30 ℔ of nitrogen per acre may be saved by allowing the bines to remain uncut, this representing practically one-third of the total amount of nitrogen in the hops, leaf and bine together. There are also from 25 ℔ to 30 ℔ of potash in the growth, of which nine-tenths would return to the roots, with about half the phosphoric acid and a very small proportion of the lime. ”

“ The calculated annual average yields per acre over the years 1885 to 1907 ranged between 12.76 cwt. in 1899 and 4.81 cwt. in 1888. No other staple crop of British agriculture undergoes such wide fluctuations in yield as are here indicated, the size of the crop produced bearing no relation to the acreage under cultivation. For example, the 71,327 acres in 1885 produced only 509,170 cwt., whereas the 51,843 acres in 1899 produced 661,373 cwt.—19,484 acres less under crop yielded 152,203 cwt. more produce. ”

“ The wide fluctuations in the home production of hops are worthy of note, as they exercise a powerful influence upon market prices. The largest crop between 1885, the first year in which figures relating to production were collected, and 1907 was that of 776,144 cwt. ”