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 A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE foreign competition, for during the 15th century hops were largely imported into England as th( customs accounts clearly prove. In 1 482 I cwt. was sold for 8^., and i cwt. 2 1 lb. for 1 9^. 6d., a curious instance of their early flue tuation in price. In 15 10 2 cwt. were sold at 13^. 6d., next year they were sold at 3^. alb., and ir 1 5 14 8j. ^d. per cwt.*° They were sometimes sold by the stone, six stone being sold at Hunstantor in 1527 at 25. 4d. per stone ; in the same year half a hundredweight was sold for iSs. 8d. ; th( fluctuation in the price was very great; at Cambridge in 1587 they were 26s. 8d. a cwt., in 158c 63J. 4.d., in 1607 170J. The following are some prices at Hereford : — 1692-3 60s. 1697-8 210s. 1693-4 40/. 1698-9 Z40J. 1694-5 . . .... no/. 1 700-1 100/. It was to Holland in the i6th century that we owe the technical cultivation of the plant, a we do so many improvements in agriculture, and the use of hops in beer was also, most probably, ar invention of the Dutch.^^ One Reynold Scott, writing in 1574, says, 'One man may well keep two thousand hils, upor every hil well ordered you shall have 3 lbs. of hoppes at the least, one hundred pounds of thesf hoppes are commonly worth 261. Sd.*'' one acre of ground and the third part of one man's laboui with small cost beside, shall yealde unto him that ordereth the same well, fortie marks yearly anc that for ever,' a sanguine view that subsequent experience has not justified. John Evelyn did no favour hops ; ' It is little more than an age,' he says, ' since hopps (rather a medical than alimenta vegetable) transmuted our wholesome ale into beer, which doubtless much altered our constitutions That one ingredient, by some not unworthily suspected, preserving drink indeed, and so by custon made agreeable, yet repaying the pleasure with tormenting diseases, and a shorter life, may deservedij abate our fondness for it, especially if with this be considered likewise the casualties in planting it as seldom succeeding more than once in three years, yet requiring constant charge and culture besides that it is none of the least devourers of young timber.'** Richard Bradley, a Cambridge professor who wrote several works on agriculture at th( beginning of the i8th century, says, in 1729, 'that ground never esteemed before worth ; shilling an acre per annum, is rendered worth forty, fifty, or sometimes more pounds a year bj planting hops judiciously upon it. An acre of ground cultivated for hops shall bring to the ownei clear profit about J^2^ yearly for a long season, but I have known hop-grounds that have clearec above ^50 yearly per acre.' At the time when Bradley wrote, there were about 12,000 acres ii England planted with hops ; before that their cultivation had not been very extensive. Betweei 1750 and 1780 this area had increased to 25,000, and in 1800 there were 32,000 acres ; in 187^ 71,789 acres, the largest recorded ; in 1905 48,967 acres. The great increase prior to 1878 wa mainly due to the abolition of the excise duty in 1862, which on an average was equal to an annua charge of nearly £'j per acre.*' In the same year the import duty was taken off, but in spite o this the acreage planted increased until 1878. In 1882 there was a very short crop in England anc the average price was ^18 lo^. per cwt., some choice samples fetching ;^30. This was mos unfortunate for the hop-growers as it led to the increased use of substitutes for hops, such as quassia chiretta, Colombo, gentian, and since then the substitution of these drugs has been extensively continued, to the loss of the planter and to the detriment of public health. In Herefordshire, as in the other six chief hop-growing counties, the parishes in which hops an cultivated are nearly the same as they have been during the last hundred years, and in these parishes the same land, generally speaking, has been used for hops for the last fifty years. In 1840 Hereford shire and Worcestershire together only grew about 6,000 acres, in 1905 Herefordshire alone grevi 6,851, the increase being due to the fact that brewers have lately shown a greater fondness fo Worcesters, for the quality has improved owing to better cultivation and management. Probabb uo branch of agriculture has shown so much progress during the last sixty years as hop-culture. It may be well by way of contrast to give some extracts from what is perhaps the earlies treatise on hop-growing by the above mentioned Reynold Scott. In the preparation of a hop-garden ' if your ground be grasse,' he says, ' it should be first sowen with hempe or beanes which maketi the ground melowe destroyeth weedes, and leaveth the same in good season for this purpose. At the end of Marche,' he continues, ' repayre to some good garden to compound wit) the owner for choice rootes which in some places will cost 5^. an hundreth. And now you mus "Thorold Rogers, Hist. ofJgric. and Prices, iii, 254. « Ibid, iv, 546. In Belgium to-day roots previously blanched are sold for vegetables at from loa-. to IS. per lb. " 'A perfite platforme of a Hoppe Garden,' 4-5, in Arte of Gardening by R. Scott, 1574. ^'PoOTOTfl (ed. 1664), i. ' » 3/t " Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc. of Engl. (1890), 324. 422