Hanures.—In starting a hop-yard in the East a liberal dressing of twelve to twenty tons of farm manure per acre is frequently applied. After the crop is established, the general method of manuring is by applying a good-sized forkful of stable manure on the crown of the plant in the fall, thus serving the two-fold purpose of fertilizing and a protective mulch. In the spring it is worked into the soil about the hill. Sometimes manure is used between the rows with good results. The large amount of nitrogen in farm manure has sometimes caused excessive leaf-growth and a green, undesirable hop. This has led some of the best growers to alternate the manure with applications of commercial fertil izers, especially those containing a large percent age of potash, as wood-ashes. So far as quality is concerned, it is wisest to depend at least partially on commercial manures. Good quality has been secured from broadcasting one ton per acre of wood-ashes in the fall, and applying 500 pounds of ground bone at the first hoeing in the spring. The largest yields, however, seem to follow the applica tion of the manure to the hills in the fall, assisted by an application of commercial fertilizer at the first hoeing in the spring. Possibly the highest yield per acre and the best market quality are not compatible. In the richer and newer soils of the West little attention is yet paid to fertilizing.
Propagation.—Hops are always propa gated from cuttings of the underground stems, called "roots." These are grubbed from the runners of estab lished hills and cut into pieces having two to six " eyes" each, and four to eight inches long. They are set out in spring as early as pos sible, at the rate of two to four pieces in a hill, the pieces being six to eight inches apart in the hill.
Some growers set the cut tings upright in holes punched with a bar. This method is more diffi cult, but is said to give more compact hills with a better root system. The tops are brought even with the surface of the ground, and they are then hilled up two or three inches. The cutting must not be allowed to dry out completely. Sometimes, espe cially in the warmer parts of the West, it is nec essary to plant the cuttings as soon as they are made, or "heel " them in on moist ground. The hills are usually placed about seven feet apart each way, which gives 700 to nearly 900 hills per acre. Many growers have found it advisable to set out about one per cent male plants to cause seed production, thus increasing very appreciably the weight of the crops. In other cases, no attention is paid to the sexes. Roots are commonly sold in the East by the bushel, but sometimes by the hundred "sets." Their price fluctuates very widely and may form a considerable item of expense in establishing a new yard.
Since the hop yields no crop in the East until the second year, it is the universal custom to plant it with some other crop. Corn is sometimes used, letting a hill of hops take the place of every alternate hill of corn in each alternate row. Ob jection has been offered to corn for this purpose on the ground that it shades the hops too much. Pota toes and beans are used in the same way. This permits clean cultivation and good care of the young plants. Sometimes the hops are planted as usual and then the field is sown with oats, a method that has nothing to commend it. The hop is a plant that requires clean and exacting cultiva tion. This companion-cropping does not apply in California, where the plants get an earlier start, being set out in January and February, and pro duce a fair crop the first year.
A yard commonly attains its best condition two to four years after setting, and by careful atten tion and replanting of hills when necessary, it may be maintained for ten, and, occasionally, fifteen years. Probably six to twelve years may be taken as the average profitable life of a yard when good care is given. There is difficulty in getting a new plant to grow in the place where an old one has died, and when the entire field is plowed up and replanted, care must be exercised to have the new rows occupy the land between the old ones.
Pruning.—The roots of the plant require prun ing, or "grubbing," as it is sometimes called, each year. The first pruning is given about a year after the plants are set out. The dead stump remaining from the previous crop, together with about one inch of the crown, is cut off clean. The shallow runners are also cut off and removed. This opera tion exposes the poor or worthless roots, which may be taken up and replaced with healthy ones.
Cultivation.— So far as cultural implements are concerned, no very special tools are required. The yard is usually shallow-plowed in the early spring with a small one-horse plow, and after that is kept clean until midsummer by outface cultivation. Various types of cultivators are used. As the sea s m progresses. the earth around the plant is gradu a; ly ridged or mounded up into well -marked hills. some growers assert that high hills aid in overcoming the damage from the hop grub. At any rate, high hills are a protection to the crowns in the winter. There is considerable variation in cultural method, but the best growers agree that it should be thorough and continued as late as pos sible. A new yard should not be neglected the first year. but given the same care as later.