off from all kinds of well ripened old cheese. As a matter of curiosity, I determined both the amount of free ammonia and that contained in the cheese in the form of ammoniacal salts, and found in 100 parts : Treated with water the Norwegian cheese yielded, calculated for its natural state : 42.44 Matters soluble in water and containing 2.52 of nitrogen 23.17 34.39 100.00 Newly made, this cheese is quite insipid, and it takes a year or longer to develop the full flavour, which becomes, indeed, quite overpowering to an English nose and palate at the time when the cheese is considered in Norway to be in prime condition. London, 11, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, July, 1870. XVIII.-On Recent Improvements in the Cultivation and Management of Hops. By CHARLES WHITEHEAD. INTRODUCTION. Varium et mutabile semper is peculiarly applicable to the hop, for no plant is more fickle or so difficult to manage. Rustics have a clumsy joke upon its ever-changing nature, saying, that it is rightly named 'hop,' for it hops from one extreme to another with wonderful celerity. It is especially sensitive to changes of temperature, so that, at certain stages of its growth, a white frost, or any sudden atmospheric change, may check its vigour, and, by producing abnormal action, render it liable to blight, mould, and other numerous ills which it is heir to. These characteristics of the plant formerly rendered it such an attractive subject for betting-the collection of the hop duty then affording convenient data for the operation-that members of Tattersall's even condescended to put their money upon hops; and merchants, factors, growers, with many others more or less connected with hops, made their annual venture upon the essen amount of the duty. It is very interesting, giving besides a forcible illustration of the uncertain nature of the plant, to trace the changes and chances of the crop from June to September, as clearly evidenced by the fluctuations in the betting "sets estimates. For example, in the year 1840 the duty was estimated in June at from 140,000l. to 160,0007; on the 14th of July at from 90,000l. to 100,0007; on the 24th of the same month at 40,0007.; and it paid only about 34,000l. in duty. Again, in the year 1834 the duty was set in July at from 80,000l. to 90,000Z., and it paid over 180,0007. Blights and other causes of failure in the hop crop were not looked upon as unmitigated calamities while the duties upon foreign hops were in force. The high prices obtained for the few hops grown frequently proved more remunerative than low prices for a larger crop; and a stimulus was imparted to the trade for a year or two after a partial failure. This natural result of a practical monopoly probably tended to make growers of hops somewhat apathetic and careless about improvements in cultivation and management, and in devising means to make the chances of a crop more certain. Until the last ten or fifteen years quality was not much considered; colour was not thought an tial;* nor was the sort of hop much regarded by the brewers. The mighty thirst for pale ale has changed all this, and hopgrowers find that colour and quality are indispensable; that if they cannot produce hops to meet these requirements, there are innumerable foreign producers who are vigorously competing with them under more favourable conditions. The Bavarian, French, and Belgian hop-growers have the advantages of climate, of a plantation in the full vigour of youth, of comparatively low rents and taxes, with cheap labour. The American growers, whose acreage is immense, whose improvement in cultivation and management has been very great, have thousands of square miles of virgin soil in which hops will do well for years without manure, a more equable summer temperature, and a proverbial commercial energy. The New Zealanders, in the garden of the world, are making efforts to be represented in the "Borough"-absit omen! and the Tasmanians boast that their somewhat despised country will some day be the great hopgrowing centre of the universe. The rents of hop-land in England have been put up generally, local taxation has nearly doubled, and home competition is greater; for the repeal of the home duty had the effect of increasing the home hop acreage * Mr. Boys, in his "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Kent," in 1805, remarks, that "those late picked hops, though of a bad colour, are often very strong, and the most experienced planters are of opinion that it is better to be too late thau too early in the picking." in a wonderful degree, as in 1861, the last year in which the hop duty was levied, there were only 47,941 acres in full plant in the United Kingdom; whereas the agricultural returns for Great Britain showed 56,562 acres in 1866, and 64,273 acres for the year 1867. The abolition of the Customs' duties also stimulated the production of foreign hops to a certain extent. The enormous prices obtained for good foreign hops in 1860 and 1861, on account of the almost utter failure of the English crop in the disastrous season of 1860, tended far more to encourage the foreign growers. The unusual and accidental circumstance of a succession of small and indifferently grown crops in this country for the following seven years, taking the average, has given a general impetus to foreign hop-growing, which has now probably culminated in the extraordinary importation of 322,515 cwts. during the year 1869. This combination of causes has awakened the English growers from lethargy, and has opened their eyes to the real position of affairs; and they are now generally making vigorous efforts to improve their system of cultivation and management, so that it may be said that in no previous decade in the history of hop-growing has such intelligent attention been paid to both the scientific and practical phases of the question as in the years from 1860 to 1870. This is shown by the greatly increased number of well-managed first-class samples to be seen upon the boards of the factors in the Borough, by the various experiments that have been made to stay the ruinous devastations of blight, mould, red spider, and other hop pests and diseases, by the introduction of early and improved sorts, and by a more systematised and judicious course of grubbing and planting. It is proposed to give a concise history of these improvements in cultivation and management within the last few years, by which it will be seen that although they are considerable, there is yet a great deal to be done in this direction, if the English planters wish to beat the foreign producers, in spite of their many advantages. IMPROVEMENTS IN CULTIVATION. General Management.-There was a great ceremony observed formerly in preparing land to be planted with hops. Pasture land was usually preferred, for some unknown reason, and ploughed up by 10 horses from 12 to 16 inches deep. Other land was trenched by workmen, the sticky subsoil thrown on the top, and the good surface mould buried underneath. This made the surface soil unkindly for years, and the delicate "fibres," which are even of more importance as food providers to the plant than the large roots, were sadly hindered in their operations. Land intended for hops is now ploughed in the ordinary way, or rather deeper; the subsoil plough following in the furrow, where subsoiling is possible or requisite. The turf of old pasture land is, or ought to be, pared and burned, in order that the larvæ of the numerous destructive insects may be destroyed; of these the larva of the "ghost" moth (Hepialus Humuli), of the small "swift" moth (Hepialus Lupulinus), and of the wireworm (Hemirhipus lineatus), are most injurious to young hops. The latter larva was ignorantly mistaken for the centipede (Scolopendra), whose natural habitation is in decaying fibres, and it is only comparatively recently that the ravages of the wireworm have been duly estimated, and checked by traps of pieces of potatoes, turnips, or rape cake, put into each "hill," and regularly watched. With regard to the actual planting, the custom of cramming as many plants as possible into an acre is exploded. It is thought desirable that there should be at least 6 feet 6 inches between every hill, which would give about 1030 hills to the acre if planted on the square, and about 1200 if planted triangularly. A thousand hills are quite enough for an acre; quite as large crops are grown with such a plant as from one of 1200, or even 1400 hills, which it was once thought wise to adopt. It is obvious in the adoption of the system of the lesser number of hills to the acre, that there is at once a great saving of labour and of expense for poles; and what is of more importance still, the sun and the air permeate more freely through the alleys. Two good "sets," or cuttings that have been one year in a nursery, are usually put to form a hill. Even one very good set occasionally suffices, and it has been observed that the fewer the sets the better the stock or centre hereafter, and not so liable to decay or rot away in partibus, especially in "Goldings." The careless practice of planting cut sets taken directly from the hill is fast going out.† Four, or even five, of these were formerly crowded together to form the nucleus,‡ and it frequently happened that in very dry seasons they failed to grow, while the bedded or nursery sets rarely fail. Very great care and pains are now taken with these sets, to keep varieties distinct, to select the "Hill" is the technical term for each plant centre. So called from the custom of earthing, or putting earth on such centres for preservation, &c., during the winter, which thus forms a little mound or “hill." †The Americans still plant 2 or 3 cut sets in this way; but their land is rich, unexhausted, and cheap, so that they do not care about the duration of their grounds. Mr. Rutley, in his Prize Essay upon Hops, in the Royal Agricultural Journal' for December, 1848, says: "The cheapest and best way is to plant cut sets where they are to remain. Five cut sets is a sufficient number to raise a hill, and what is most generally planted." most true and strong, to have their nursery well manured and cultivated. Until lately they were put into any corner of the farm all together, "Colegates" and "Goldings," "Grapes" and "Jones'," forgotten probably until they were required. Moreover, some planters actually used to plant up the dead hills in their grounds with any sorts they happened to have; thus Goldings-the best sort-were filled up with Colegates, the worst sort; and Grapes were jumbled up with Jones' in the most haphazard manner. From time immemorial certain plantations were filled up or renewed with scions, taken solely from their own stock-cut from the hill and put directly in-to preserve the supposed superiority of quality, and to hand it down in unsullied line. The cuttings from traditionally celebrated grounds were hoarded as carefully as Dutch tulip bulbs, and planters had jealous fears lest their neighbours should obtain even a rootlet from their "old ground." The consequences of this are plainly evidenced by the greatly diminished productiveness of these grounds, their greater tendency to decay at the root, and their predisposition to blight and mould. It is admitted readily that the quality of their fruit is very fine, but this does not by any means counterbalance the disadvantages above mentioned. It is as wrong to propagate plants from the same stocks perpetually, as to breed animals "in and in," without a change of blood. Great delicacy of constitution and diminished fertility are the known results of the inbreeding of animals of all kinds. In each successive generation the evil consequences are increased, in the case of animals as well as of plants, and there is a natural process of selection to degeneracy, as well as for the development of desired and useful qualities. With regard to new hop-grounds, planters in the Mid and East Kent, and the Farnham districts, are now, as a rule, planting only the very best sorts, such as Goldings and Golding Grapes, Whitebine Grapes, or noted varieties of these kinds. In the Weald of Kent, in Sussex, Worcester, and Hereford, Grapes, Jones', and Mathons, are usually planted. Colegates are not now esteemed; for though they are heavy croppers, and not so liable to blight or mould as the more choice sorts, they are coarse, and have a rank smell resembling somewhat that of new inferior Americans. In some parts of Kent and Sussex, Colegates produce as much as from 20 to 30 cwt. per acre in a kindly year; but in spite of this they are not planted to any great extent. It is almost the general practice to obtain sets for planting new ground and for filling up, from a distance,-from some planter who has a good growth, and a reputation for being careful in selecting and managing his sets. A change of sets is thought |