Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/560

 A HISTORY OF KENT acre is from l8/. to 21/., and on this account, as well as from scarcity of labour, ploughing fre- quently takes the place of the thorough digging. The old bines are then cut off with a sharp curved knife. Manure of all kinds — farmyard dung, stable-refuse from London, rags, wool- waste and fish — is applied during the winter and dug or ploughed in. In the summer rape- dust, guano, nitrate of soda and various artificial manures are chopped in with the Canterbury hoe. The hop-plant requires training ; in many parts, especially in the Weald, this is still done by means of temporary poles, of which two or three are set to each hill. But permanent structures of wire strained on stout posts are now common. By their use a greater amount of produce is obtained, the plant is healthier, and 'washing' is both facilitated and made more effective. The wires are re-strung every year with cocoa-nut fibre about one-fourth of an inch in diameter. Several different systems of tying obtain in Kent. In one of these, known as Butcher's system, there are three wires stretched along the poles, the first about six inches, the second about five feet, and the third, or top one, about twelve feet six inches from the ground. Three strings to each hill are fastened close together on the bottom wire ; they branch out laterally to the middle wire and are then carried slantwise, but parallel to one another to the top wire in the adjacent row. In another somewhat less expensive system stout poles are placed at the end of each row, and at intervals in the row where required, and there is only one wire, viz. along the tops. Pegs are driven into the ground close to each hop stock, and from each peg four strings are carried outwards to the top wires. The strings are made taut somewhat by being gathered together about five feet from the ground, but the system is less stable than the one previously described and the plants require to be well ' lewed ' or shel- tered from the wind. For this purpose bine-screens are erected on the more exposed side. One advantage of the system is that it gives cultivation ' alleys ' in several different directions. There are other methods of stringing each of which has particular advantages and drawbacks according to the character of the season and other circumstances. The initial cost of per- manent poling may be put at £20 to £^0 per acre. During the summer a great many women are employed in keeping the bines on the strings, earning from is. 6d. to is. lod. per day at this pleasant and not very arduous labour. Attacks of aphis frequently necessitate spraying with quassia and soft-soap compounds several times during the season. This is done by hand, horse, or in some cases, steam power. Mildew is combated by the application of sulphur by means of a horse-drawn machine fitted with a revolving fan. Picking commences about September and lasts for some weeks. A large number of immigrant ' hoppers,' estimated at 45,000 to 65,000, come into the county for the purpose. Most planters now engage their pickers beforehand, and the whole system is on a far more satis- factory basis than was formerly the case. Good pickers can earn from 4J. to 5^. per day, and the same persons are very often engaged earlier in the year for the fruit and pea-picking. The hops are taken to the oast-houses to be dried. Buyers are becoming increasingly stringent as to the proper conduct of this operation which, in spite of its requiring considerable skill, is performed by the ordinary labourers without any special training. After about nine or ten hours' drying the hops are allowed to cool somewhat, and are then closely packed into 'pockets,' weighing ijcwt. Each pocket is marked with the name of the grower and his parish. Besides this hops are classed for commercial purposes as ' East Kents,' ' Bastard East Kents,' ' Mid-Kents ' and ' Wealds,' and these divisions agree in the main with those defined by the geological formations on which the several kinds are grown. Thus ' East Kents ' are grown upon the Chalk and especially on the outcrop of the soils of the London Tertiaries upon the Chalk. ' Mid-Kents ' are derived principally from the soils and outcrops of the London Tertiaries in the upper part of the district. ' Wealds ' come from soils on the Weald Clay and the Hastings and Tunbridge Wells Lands. ' Bastard East Kents ' were at one time largely grown in the small district lying between the Weald and East Kent proper, but this class is losing its importance as their cultivation is now almost entirely confined to four or five parishes on the borders of the Weald. Each of the other divisions contains about one-third of the hop acreage. East Kent hops usually make the highest and Wealds the lowest rates. The capital required for hop-growing is, it may be judged, very considerable. The annual expense of cultivation varies greatly, but is far higher than it used to be. In 1795 Marshall estimated it at £26 per acre. Fifty years later Buckland computed the cost at £iz per acre. At the present time it probably varies from about £z^ per acre on the poorest grounds in the Weald to £^0 or more on the best farms of East or Mid- Kent. The speculative character of the crop is indicated by the fact that in 1905 the average yield per acre in Kent was 14J cwt., while in the following year it was under 6 cwt. A short crop does 466