THE HOP.

Waka Maori, Volume I, Issue 16, 11 January 1879, Page 234

THE HOP.

ITS CULTURE AND TREATMENT. In compliance with the expressed desire of many of our Native readers that some information be given in the columns of the Waka on the culture of the Hop, we have great pleasure in publishing the following article from the pen of Charles K. JefEs, Esq, of Wellington:— The hop {BJumulus lupulus) has been cultivated in Europe during an unknown period for'its flowers, which are used in giving a bitter flavor to beer, as well as for preserving it. Its roots are perennial, and its stem ascends.trees and other supports. It is a dioecious p 7 ant —that is, the male and female flowers are on different individuals. The male-plants are technically called wild hops, and are rejected as of no vali*. The hop is a native of England and most parts of Europe; it flowers in this country in January and February. The hop is raised from slips taken from the stem, or from sets taken from the root. These are planted either in autumn or in spring; but the latter is the usual time, when sets are used. The plant is in,its full bearing the second year after planting ; and a plantation generally lasts fifteen years, when it must "be renewed, the old plants being grubbed up, and fresh sets planted. The slips or sets are obtained from the pruning of the old plantations, or from the roots. Each slip or set should contain two joints or buds. The manner of forming the hop plantation is this : The ground is deeply ploughed, and well cleaned; the places were the sets are to be planted are marked out, which may be done by a plough drawing parallel furrows at the distance of eight feet apart, and then by crossing these by similar furrows, at similar distances. The points where these furrows intersect are the places where the sets are to be planted. At each of these points of intersection a hole is dug, and some manure put into it; a little hillock is made, and eight sets are planted in it, with their buds pointing outwards, forming a circle round the top of each hillock at the distance of six inches from each other, and one is generally placed in the centre. In the first year the plants are tilled and hoed in the intervals, and the earth is drawn by the hoe round the roots of the plants. The principal earthing is in the first spring of the growth of the plant, but it is repeated annually afterwards, each spring. The first season a crop of maize or potatoes may be planted between the hills, which will facilitate the cleaning, protect the young plants, and help to defray expenses. Manure is generally applied once in three years; it is either on the hills of hops or in the rows. An esteemed manure for this plant is' woollen rag, the sweepings of a wool-shed, or the like, although well rotted farm manure or bone dust is most generally used.

The yield during the first year should, with the maize or potatoes, as the case may be, be sufficient to pay all the expenses of establishing the hop garden, and in the second year they yield their full crop of flowers. In preparation for this the poles are set. This operation is performed generally at the end of October, when the shoots are from two to three inches high. _ The poles consist of straight saplings, from six to nine inches circumference at the base, and tapering off to the size of a small cane, and from nine to ten feet long. Three or even four poles are placed, upon each hill,'equidistant; they are" fixed in the ground on the outside of the sets or shoots by making deep holes with an iron crow, their tops inclining somewhat outwards. The next operation consists in tying to the poles the shoots which it is wished to preserve; this is a work of skill, and one upon the right performance of which part of the success of the crop depends. The shoots not to be preserved are then cut away* The tying up of the shoots which have been selected (which should be the finest) is by means of withered rushes or half-rotten flax, so loosely tied as to allow the free growth of the shoots, which, as the warm weather advances, grow with extraordinary rapidity twining round the poles. [to be coxcl-uded.]