Page:Once a Week Volume V.djvu/501

 494 cowl-surmounted chimney thick white steam is pouring fast, betokening that the dryer is already at work. Large gardens generally contain two or three of these buildings, small ones but one. They are circular in shape, and some eighteen feet in diameter; on the ground floor are lighted three charcoal fires, a little sulphur being thrown on them to colour the hops. The ceiling of the room is composed of timber joists, about two feet apart, crossed with laths at the distance of every two inches or so, and over this the hair is firmly stretched, on which a layer of fruit, two feet in thickness, has just been laid. It will be some hours before they are thoroughly dried, but the time varies according to their dampness, the dryer taking good care to keep them constantly well turned, for on the successful accomplishment of this operation depends in a great measure the value of the crops. A good dryer, with indifferent hops, will show a better sample than a bad one with those of superior quality. And many are the growls of dissatisfaction from disappointed young beginners, when year after year some experienced old practitioner carries off prize after prize at the horticultural shows of the neighbourhood. When thoroughly dried, the hops are placed in the stowage-room, which is also on the same upper floor as the hair, to cool; and here they remain for some days. They are now ready for stomping, a man and a boy being told off from the farm for that purpose. In the floor of the stowage-room is a circular trapdoor, and when the trap is down a pocket is placed below the aperture (which is about the size of the sack’s mouth-piece) and fastened by strong hooks to the wooden ridge that runs around the hole. The boy then shovels a quantity of hops into the pockets, the man, jumping in, stamps or “stomps” them into the smallest possible compass. When the sacks are full they are sewn up; and now not a single bag may be removed till the supervisor of the district has seen them weighed, on account of that little 18s 4d. which Government demands on every cwt. grown. When once stamped with the royal mark, the grower can cut his samples, and send his crop to market as soon as he pleases. Each pocket contains on the average one cwt. and a quarter. The samples are cut in small compact squares from their contents, the bag being unsewn for that purpose. Notwithstanding the heavy duty, and great risk it may be of almost a total failure for two years running, there is no crop pays the farmer so well, on the whole, as hops; one acre of ground yielding from ten to thirty cwt., according to the seasons; and when we mention that in middling years each single cwt. will realise 10l, 120l or 140l. is not so bad a return for labour expended and capital laid out; and after duty and all expenses are paid, a very handsome balance remains in the proprietor’s hands. For it must be remembered that a garden once arrived at maturity will last for a hundred years; for the hop, like the everlasting pea, springs up afresh, year after year, with undiminished strength, although it is four years before it arrives at its full growth. So soon as the crop is carried in the autumn, every hop-hill (for so each little cluster of roots is termed) is carefully examined, to see if any symptoms of weakness or injury appear; and where Such is the case, a “hop set”—apiece of the old bine—is cut, and placed in the room of the decayed or fragile limb; the grounds are carefully cleared, and everything as far as possible prepared for the next season. It is not every place where hops will grow; and they require plenty of good manure to thrive well. In the spring the hills are again inspected, and all the young shoots plucked up with the exception of three runners intended to climb the poles, this being considered a sufficient quantity to cover them entirely. These most luxuriant and beautiful specimens of vegetation have many enemies to contend against. The black and green flies are their sworn foes, destroying and feasting upon their inviting foliage to a most fearful extent. The “mould,” also, is very fatal to them. The poles of these aspiring climbers are seldom more than 14 feet in height, growers having discovered that if they rose to 20 feet or more in altitude, the hops never begin to bear until they have reached the very top of their supporters. The price of these last-mentioned articles varies in different localities, but from twenty-eight to thirty shillings a 100 is a common price. Anyone wishing to farm a hop-garden would not take the trouble to plant sets over 7, 10, 30, or 40 acres of land, as the case might be, but buy, from some small cottager, so many thousand two-year-olds; for almost every peasant who owns a piece of ground in the neighbourhood of the hop-gardens spares a portion of it for a hop-nursery; and there may be seen little one-year-olds trailing on the ground: those of two seasons* growth supported by four-feet sticks. It is not till the third year of a new ground the fruit is worth the trouble of gathering, though not of sufficient value to warrant pulling the six-feet poles on which it hangs, and steps are therefore used, on which the picker mounts to pluck the hops—on the fourth year, as before observed, the bine is fully developed. The most generally cultivated varieties now are the “Goldings,” “Grape,” and “Golden Drop,” all of them producing fine heavy fruit.

But hark! what is that hoarse cry, borne upon the evening breeze? “Money, money! “Who wants money?” and quitting the host, we hasten to the spot whence the noisy voice proceeds. Throngs of pullers and pickers are fast hastening in the same direction. In a few minutes we are in the presence of the foreman, who, seated on a sack, with a bag of money before him, holds his evening court. “Money, money! Who wants money?” he shouts out again. It is not very long before his question receives a reply, and crowds of applicants surround him. All the tramps demand and receive their full day’s wages. Not so the cottagers, who as a rule prefer having their tallies entered in a book, waiting till the Saturday for their liquidation. This important settlement of affairs concluded, all gladly hasten to their homes. The cottagers, dispersed in quiet little groups, wend their way peaceably along to their own or parents’ cottages. The noisy tramps, on the contrary, shouting and singing aloud as they turn their steps in the direction of the Hop Houses, places prepared (if we may use the word)