AGRICULTURE choose the biggest rootes you can find such as are three or four inches about, and let every roote be nine or ten inches long,' and contain three joints. Holes were then to be dug at least 8 ft. apart, I ft. square, and i ft. deep, and in each two or three roots planted, and well hilled up. Three or four poles were to be set to each hill, fifteen or sixteen feet long ' at the most except your ground be very rich,' the poles nine or ten inches in circumference at the butt so that ' they shall endure the longer and stand the wind better.' After they were put in, the ground round the poles was well rammed. The hops were tied with rushes or grass. During the growth of the hops, not more than two or three ' stalks ' being allowed per pole, after the first year the hills were gradually to be raised from the alleys between the rows, thus giving the ground a good stirring, and the greater ' you make your hylles the more hoppes you shall have upon your poales.' *" At hop-picking time, the bines, when cut, were carried to a ' floore prepared for the purpose ' ^^ where they were stripped into baskets, and Scott remarks ' it is not hurtfull greatly though the smaller leaves be mingled with the hoppes.' If the weather was wet the hops were to be stripped in the house. In the winter Scott recom- mends that the hops be thrown down and left to lie bare to ' restraine them from to rathe sprynging.' He gives minute instructions as to drying, too long to describe in this article, but it may he noted that the fire was of wood, and some dried their hops in the sun, a process he condemns. Many of the sacks then came from Flanders, and were packed by treading in the manner in use for centuries, and if no sacks were procurable barrels might be used. A hundred years after Scott John Beale wrote : ' For hops we make haste to be the chief hop masters in England, our country (Herefordshire) having store of coppice woods and many men planting abundance of the fairest and largest sort of hops. All about Bromyard in a base soil there is great store.' ^' At the end of the i8th century the hops in 'the highest estimation in the county were divided into two classes,' White and Red : White 1. The Golden Vine, a white hop with a red vine. 2. Cooper's White, an excellent hop 'lately introduced.' 3. The Farnham White lately introduced from Farnham. 4. The Kentish Grape. 5. The Mathon White. 6. The Townend Green wired hop, ' a remarkably large square hop first grown at Townend in the parish of Bosbury.' Red 1. The Red Vine or Chester red. 2. The Newcombe. The hop-yards of Herefordshire are chiefly situated upon the eastern side of the county, mainly upon the better marls of the New Red Sandstone, and the rich and extensive alluvial deposits of the Wye, Lugg, Teme, and other rivers. It is said that the land by the Teme will grow hops for ever, on the other hand very old grounds are more liable to blight and mould and less able to resist changes of weather.^' Many of the inferior hops in the county have been grubbed of late years, and Mathon Whites, Bramlings, Goldings, and Mayfield Grapes planted in their place, and there has been more improvement in condition, quality, and appearance of ' Worcesters ' during the last generation than in any other district. The Golding is the best of English hops, the Bramling being a Golding of slightly different shape, and somewhat earlier. Other early varieties are Meophams, Prolifics and Fuggles. The Mathon, first grown in Mathon, a parish in Worcestershire, is a very favourite hop in that county and Herefordshire. In Herefordshire hops are planted from 6 ft. 6 in. to 7 ft. apart each way, the number of hills per acre varying from 900 to 1,000, but there is a tendency to set them more closely together. Old pastures and old apple orchards are excellent sites for hop-yards, for they are generally in the best and most sheltered spots. Planting is generally done in October and November, square holes being made with a spade, into which the sets are pressed firmly, an inch or two being left above the ground, the roots having first been well trimmed and dead bines cut off. In the spring a small pole is put to each hill and the bines tied to it, the ground between the rows and round the hills bemg kept ■well hoed. "> By the illustrations in Scott's book the Mils appear to have been from two to four feet high, pp. 27-31. "' By Bradley's time, 1727, the present hop crib had come into use; see his Cou?!lry Gentleman and Farmer's Director, 1 29. _ '^ Herefs. Orchards a Pattern for All England, 28. ^ Marshall says, ' Considerable quantities of hops are grown in Herefordshire, especially about Bromyard, in that part of the county bordering on what may be called the Hop District of Worcestershire.' Rural Econ. ofGlouc. (1796), ii, 190. 423
