Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/452

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The culture of Virgil's vines corresponds very exactly with the modern management of hops. I might instance in the perpetual diggings and hoeings, in the tying to the stakes and poles, in pruning the superfluous shoots, etc., but lately I have observed a new circumstance, which was a neighbouring farmer's harrowing between the rows of hops with a small triangular harrow, drawn by one horse, and guided by two handles. This occurrence brought to my mind the following passage:

Hops are diœcious plants; hence perhaps it might be proper, though not practised, to leave purposely some male plants in every garden, that their farina might impregnate the blossoms. The female plants without their male attendants are not in their natural state: hence we may suppose the frequent failure of crop so incident to hop-grounds; no other growth, cultivated by man, has such frequent and general failures as hops.

Two hop gardens much injured by a hailstorm, June 5th, show now (September 2nd) a prodigious crop, and larger and fairer hops than any in the parish. The owners seem now to be convinced that the hail, by beating off the tops of the binds, has increased the side-shoots, and improved the crop. Query. Therefore should not the tops of hops be pinched off when the binds are very gross, and strong?—.

The naked part of the Hanger is now covered with thistles of various kinds. The seeds of these thistles may have lain probably under the thick shade of the beeches for many years, but could not vegetate till the sun and air were admitted. When old beech trees are cleared away, the naked ground in a year or two becomes covered with strawberry plants, the seeds of which must have lain in the ground for an age at least. One of the slidders or trenches