HOP CULTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1053, 30 March 1867, Page 6

HOP CULTURES.

IVom the Weekly Hbraxd. Amongst the products exhibited the other day at the Otahuliu Agricultural Shovr "was a plant of the hop in full bloom. It has all along been a matter for regret that the hop has not more fully entered into the list of Auckland productions. "We are quite aware that many of our country settlers regard with ridicule the idea of turning their attention to the cultivation of other products than those to which in this old country they have been accustomed, but nothing can be more unreasonable and unwise than the indulgence of such a feeling. There is a vast difference between the climates of Great Britain and the province of Auckland, and thankful should we be that the difference is so vastly in our favour. But, if we look only on this difference as a mere fact for the gratification ot individual animal enjoyment, we lose the most material benefit to be gained from it. The climate should be something more than a delightful one to live in, it should be used by us for the advancement of our material wealth. Our long summer, characterised by an abundance of heat and moisture, our mild and genial winter, our fertile lands and excellent harbour, point to the future of this part of New Zealand as something more than a corn and meat producing country. Sooner or later the truth will open upon us, that we possess in our soil and climate facilities for the growth of many products, which but a few countries only in the world can produce, and which consequently command always, and will always command a high price and a ready sale in those countries in winch they cannot be grown. Victoria, which possesses this privilege with us, but in a far lessier degree, is fully awake to the importance of the knowledge, and were we to publish a list of the products there being experimentalised upon, and on no insignificant scale too in some instances, our readers would be somewhat astonished. As one result of these experiments, however, wine, tobacco, chicory, and some other less important articles have already taken their place among the regular and staple productions of the colony, and many more will doubtless pass from the experimental stage to become firmly established as articles of staple pro- ! d action. The advocacy of the introdn<jcion I T«f taessj products as articles of growth into ; Victoria was a few years ago looked upon l y very many of the settlers there as a wild and visionary idea. Victoria, however, does not possess the same adaptability of climate as that enjoyed by the northern portion of this island for the growth of semitropical productions, and yet, from practical experiment, she has shown us that her soil can, witli large profit, yiold those products the attempt to grow which in this province many here look upon as chimerical. "We may depend upon it that practical experiment will ere many years demonstrate to us the fact that we had better leave the growth of the ordinary produets of the farm to the inferior climate of the South, to which they are more suited, and turn our attention, in part at least, to the culture of those of the growth of which our superior climate gives us a share-in the monopoly enjoyed by only a small portion of the civilised world.

We have, however, been led away from the subject with which we set out by this digression, for the hop is not one of those fieculiar products unknown to c.r least a arge portion of British There must be hundreds throughout our country districts well acquainted with its growth and preparation for market in all their stages, and we cannot see why the culture of this plant should not enter into the ordinary routine of farming in this province. "We ought to have for its growth a fine climate, a rich soil, and freedom from disease. Hops realise a high price, as far as their consumption goes, in the colony, and moreover the quality of those hops that have been grown in this province far exceeds that of those imported here. Our country settlers have to our knowledge many of them tried the experiment of growing hops on a small scale, and have been, in those instances which have fallen immediately within our observation, perfectly satisfied with the result. So far, good has been done ; but what is required is a disposition and willingness on the part of those experimentalists to put pen to paper, and give the farming public at large, through our columns, which are freely open to them, the benefit of their newly acquired knowledge. To do this effectually experiments should be conducted in a systematic form, observations should bo made and recorded at the time, and no miuutirc of detail, however trifling, be considered too unimportant to be noticed. A correspondcni. -scliiiigto us, informs us that he lis* rrown 20 lb., weight of hops, nxid tV-at he i:';down a portion oi hii iin;.-?. as a peraifeiicr.t hop gro'«n«j hut the i.i; that th-; soil en which tooso ; were grow:? was a clay loam on a clay subsoil and a hill side, sloping to the south-east, he furnishes us with no information. We had set out with the intention of giving something like a description of the course necessary to be taken by those desirous of instituting such au experiment 011 a small scale, of say one-eighth or one-quarter of an acre, but have already in the above remarks left insufficient space for the purpose. We shall, however, return again to j the subject.