HOP GROWING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 103, 1 May 1874, Page 2

HOP GROWING.

To thk Editor of the Evenixo Mail

Sir— The hop (Hutmilus hipulus) a dJari >u« plant witli perennial root hue been successfully cultivated in the Takaka Valley by Messrs Spiltal and Bridger, their crops this season having exceeded their most sanguine expectations; and this has induced several o;her* to commence the putting of their ground into onlcr for the reception < f young plants in the forthcoming spring. I have do hesitation in s tying that Takaka will become the hop garden of Nelson Province. The expense in Nelson, with self helps and poles at hand, is not quite to nn:ch a? in Fnglard, where i 1 is little less thin £ 00 per acre. Hops vary there in produce from 2to 30 cwls per acre ; from 10 to 14 cwts per acre is a f ivorah'e crop. Warm seasons with little rom, are required for good cropi ; gr< at heat after rains ar< pariiculnrly cescruclive They are in England expose 1 to many diseases and tie ravages of many insect?, so that their culture is both expulsive and unce-tain. Mtfsra Spittil and Bridger have adopted the plan of keeping large qnantities of barn door fowl at large in tl eir hop gardens, which r,n-vent an accumulation of these destructive pests, particularly when turning over tho foil in the spring. I cull the fallowing from Waterston'o "Cyclorselia of Commerce," wi h introduction by M'Culloch :— •' The finer-flavoured or light-colored hops are pressed in pockets or sacks of comparatively fine cloth winch weigh a\>ouc 1 J cwt each, and are sold chiefly to the ale-brewer. T c etrong-fla^orcd and h'gbcolored hops are put into bigs of a very coarse matknl of texture which contain ffoncrally double the weight of the pockets. These are use.l by small beer and porter brewers. The fine flavor or «r.)ma of hops does not exist a year Beyond that time they become o!d hops, and are sold at a cheaper rate to the porter brewers. A year or two longer the bitter itseif disnppeara, and the whole becomes nothing better thao. chaff. The Nottinghamshire or N( rth Clay hops have the p'e-emiiunre in rvmkness, and accordingly with a certain description of buyers bear a higher price thvi the Kent, though that is not so high a3 The ger.eral pricn of Farnham. Of the Kent hrp3 the best are grown neaCantetbury. The Etiength of hops is judged by the thickness and solidity of the citkins, and the flavor by the smell. From 60,000 to 70,000 acres in Engiand are occupied with hop gardens, about one-half being in Kent, and an excise duty of 18s Ed per cwt. is levied upon their produce, for which, however, nearly a real's credit is allowed. British hops rcimportedi ate deemed foreign." I am, &c, BiKLETCORN. Tskaki, April 24, 1874.