A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE It was formerly believed that farmyard manure from bullocks fed on oil cake was the only proper fertilizer for hops ; and it may be doubted if there is any as good, but rape dust, shoddy, fur waste, and other manures have for some time been largely used, and artificial fertilizers such as nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia given as a stimulant. Cutting or dressing is usually done in March or early in April before the plants have put forth shoots, all the fibrous growth being cut off close to the ground. Until a comparatively recent date poles (the best being of ash) pitched in the spring and removed at picking time formed the sole method of supporting and training the plants. In i860 creosoting the poles began to come into fashion and largely increased their durability. About the same time various methods of training plants upon wires and string supported by permanent uprights were also introduced and have been extensively adopted. Their great advantage is that the wind which often works havoc with hops has not so much efiFect. There is an economy of labour also in not having to set up the poles annually, but there is more trouble in tying. One of the most usual methods in Herefordshire is to place stout posts at the end of each row, and at intervals if necessary, with wire stretched from the tops only, the plants being trained up strings of fibre fastened by pegs to the ground close to each stock and on to the wire. Tying is generally the work of women, as is the pulling out of rank and hollow bines which are frequently unfruitful. The hop climbs with the sun, and has fortunately an instinctive habit of revolving and laying hold of support. The best material for tying is still the rush as used by Scott, for string expands and contracts with the changes of the weather. Some planters continually stir hop- land deeply throughout the summer, others only stir lightly after July in order not to disturb the dense network of fibres running through the soil. The object of all good hop-growers is to have as good a tilth as possible for the fibres to work in, and for retaining heat and moisture. In June the stocks are earthed by placing four or five shovelfuls of fine soil over them to stop the extraneous growth of bines from the stocks and keep them in their places. In the summer the hop-fly or aphis is almost certain to come, a pest which has made periodic appearances ever since hops have been grown in England, though in the last two generations it has been more frequent. Before i860 there was no method of fighting the insect, but about that time the practice of washing with insecticides was introduced, and now the hop-washer is put into use directly it appears, with the result that many valuable crops have been saved. The wash most commonly used and most efficacious is composed of seven to nine pounds of quassia chips and six or eight pounds of soft soap to a hundred gallons of water. It is somewhat remarkable that additional pests apparently unknown before have made their appearance with the advent of the washing-machine, such as the red spider, fleas, and jumpers. Other enemies of the hop-planter are wireworm, mould, and mildew. More attention is paid to clean picking than formerly, and Reynold Scott's practice of leaving the smaller leaves in the hops is not followed except by the careless. A number of the Hereford- shire pickers come from the large towns near, and their housing is much better attended to than it used to be, when they were often huddled together like pigs. Picking takes about half the time it used to as there is no sale for hops browned by over exposure. / Drying is perhaps the most important operation in hop-growing, and many a well-grown sample has been spoiled by bad drying. Hops are not laid so thickly on the kilns now, conse- quently there is not so much moving and the hops come off the kiln whole, and ' Worcester ' growers have lately paid more attention to drying than others, with beneficial results. The old practice of packing hops by means of a man treading them into the pockets has been superseded by pressing machines, which save much time and labour. The expense of growing hops has increased during the last forty years or so owing to higher wages, washing, and better methods of cultivation ; many of the best growers to-day spend ;^40 an acre in their efiForts to ensure a crop. Mr. Marshall, writing in 1798, put the expense of growing an acre of hops ' at twenty pounds ; exclusively of that of picking, drying &c., which is uncertain.' A man conversant on the subject ' told him the price was j^i8 per acre.' ^* The following is the balance sheet of a Herefordshire grower in 1793 for a hop acre during the first five years of cultivation : — First Year Rent Labour ...........13 5,000 roots at iid. per 100 ....... 15 2,000 poles at zzs. per 100 delivered . . . . .120 I i. d. 100 o o o " Marshall, Rural Econ. of the Southern Counties, i, 285-6. This is apparently a statute acre, as he com- pares the produce of an acre of hops with an acre of wheat. " Introductory Sketches towardsa Topographical Hist. ofHerefs. by Rev. John Lodge (1793), 54-6. Ahop acre of 1,000 stocks varies in its relation to a statute acre according to the distance between the stocks and the rows. 424
