HOP CULTIVATION.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1034, 14 May 1883, Page 2

HOP CULTIVATION.

We take the following particulars about hop growing from a Victorian paper : “Occupiers of suitable land for hop growing, who propose planting during the present season, should now begin to take the preliminary steps. The planting season begins about the middle of July, and extends to the first week or fortnight in August. In the meantime, the land should be got ready, and arrangements made for obtaining at the proper lime suitable ‘ sets ’ from established hop grounds’. If the land has to be cleared, such should be clone at once, in order to give time for working the soil, as no plant requires a larger degree of preparatory tillage than the hop. Such soil as that found 1 along the rich alluvial flats that border the maoj 7 watercourses of Gippsland, or the head waters of the Murray, is the sort that is suited to hop culture. This rich soil, consisting, as it does, of fine black friable loam, varying from 3 to 15 feet in depth, provides for the deep reaching and grass-feeding roots of the hop, and the situation should also be selected adjacent to running water, in order to ensure that indispensable requisite for perfect hop culture, facilities for irrigation. In some situations the water can be laid on to the hop garden by a race led from a point higher up the stream, or it may have to be raised direct from the stream, but the site of the proposed plantation must be chosen so as to provide for a supply of water during dry periods. Either an eastern or northern aspect for the vine should bo selected. The land should be turned over, to begin with, as deep as possible, say about seven inches, and the undersoil ripped to an additional depth by a subsoil prong. Afterwards, the cultivator, harrow, and roller should be used alternately as often as may be found necessary to reduced the soil to a perfectly fine tilth. When, by repeated workings, this result has been accomplished, the roller is passed over, and the land measured off preparatory to the formation of what are called hop hills. “ At this point we cannot do better than quote the directions contributed to us by a successful practical grower, Mr Green, of Helensville :—‘ If the ground is good, cut small pieces of saplings, or very strong fernstalks will do, 18 inches long, and 680 to every acre that is to be planted in hops. Procure a strong garden line, stretch it well, pleasure eight feet, then insert a mark (piece of red wool does very well) to every eight feet, until you have as many as will cross over your field. Place the line straight across the field to one end, then put in a fernstalk at each piece of wool ; do the same at the other end ; now turn the line up and down the field, beginning at a straight side square with the top and bottom ; put a stick or fern at each piece of wool ; now lift the line and place it at the next stick, putting sticks in at each piece of wool till you get to the other side of the field. If the ground be only of middling quality there should be only 7 feet between each peg. In that case there should be 800 to the acre. The ground is now ready for planting. Having procured you sets, male, and female, in proper proportion, one male to every 100 females, dress the sets in lengths of from 3 to 5 inches, cutting neatly out all the buds except the two top ones. Take a spade, and dig a square hole six inches deep round each peg, it being the centre. If any manure is at command, place a little in each hole, putting some fine earth along with it, leaving the hole flush with the surface of the ground. Let a dibble with a crook at one end, make a hole the depth of your set, which should now be lying by the side of the hole, place the set in level with the surface of the ground, draw the earth neatly over the top with the crooked end of the dibble about two inches above the set, leaving a neatlyformed hill about one foot in diameter ; place your stake which you had pulled out over the hill in a slanting position. Now keep the horse-shoe going between the rows, but be sure not to touch the plant.” “ Upon the process of planting, another practical authority in Gippsland advises us that ‘ small marks, usnally pieces of reeds, are set in the ground 7 feet apart, in rows the same distance from each other. Then at each of the marks a hole is dug, about 14 inches square and about 18 inches deep. These holes are then filled to the depth of a few inches with a very fine mould ; the bottom of the ‘ set’is placed in this mould and the hole filled in, the earth being pressed somewhat firmly against the set. The set is a cutting taken from near the bottom of one of the last year’s bines, care being taken to obtain good plants of good kinds from a well-known plantation. A part of the bine, about 4 inches long, is selected, and all the buds or shoots are cut off excepting two or three, which are left- at the top of the set, the top where the buds are left being

called the‘crown.’ The set is placed in the ground so deep that the crown is about one inch beneath the surface. The place were the set is planted is called a ‘hill.’ In some cases two and even three sets are planted in one hill, but the general plan, and that found most profitnble, is to plant only one. At regular intervals male plants are put in, the number being about four male plants to the hundred. The first crop is generally light, so much so that many farmers do not go to the trouble of poling the hops the first year. In the case of mote mature Imps, the process which takes the place of planting is the pruning. The eartli is taken away from the crown and the upper roots of the plant. Then all the remains of the last year’s bines are cut off close to the crown, as well as all roots that are growing within four or five inches of the surface. When this has been done manure is applied, if it is intended to apply any to the plant, and the hill is again made up, the entire plant being covered witli the mould. The ground is now ploughed and harrowed or scarified, and kept free from weeds. No work should be spared to keep the ground in good order. With respect to the kind of hops that can be advised for planting, the most successful hop-growers are adopting the ea ,- ly grape and late grape for the main crop, and the early golding for an early crop, Thejatter variety ripens about six weeks before the regular season seta in, and although it does not bear so heavily as the early and late grape, it can be harvested less expensively, owing to being in advance of the busy season, while it often fetches a high price by r catching the early market.”