Chapter 11

Manuring.—Manure is applied in the winter, and dug or ploughed in. London manure from stables is used to an enormous extent. It comes by barge or rail, and is brought from the wharves and stations by traction engines; it costs from 7s. 6d. to 9s. per load. Rags, fur waste, sprats, wool waste and shoddy are also put on in the winter. In the summer, rape dust, guano, nitrate of soda and various patent hop manures are chopped in with the Canterbury hoe. Fish guano or desiccated fish is largely used; it is very stimulating and more lasting than some of the other forcing manures.The recent investigations into the subject of hop-manuring made by Dr Bernard Dyer and Mr F. W. E. Shrivell, at Golden Green, near Tonbridge, Kent, are of interest. In the 1901 report4it was stated that the object in view was to ascertain how far nitrate of soda, in the presence of an abundant supply of phosphates and potash, is capable of being advantageously used as a source of nitrogenous food for hops. An idea long persisted among hop-growers that nitrate of soda was an unsafe manure for hops, being likely to produce rank growth of bine at the expense of quality and even quantity of hops. During recent years, however, owing very largely to the results of these experiments, and of corresponding experiments based upon these, which have been carried out abroad, hop farmers have much more freely availed themselves of the aid of this useful manure; and there is little doubt that the distrust of nitrate of soda as a hop manure which has existed in the past has been largely due to the fact that nitrate of soda, like many other nitrogenous manures, has often been misused (1) by being applied without a sufficient quantity of phosphates and potash, or (2) by being applied too abundantly, or (3) by being applied too late in the season, with the result of unduly delaying the ripening period. On most of the experimental plots nitrate of soda (in conjunction with phosphates and potash) has been used as the sole source of nitrogen; but it is, of course, not be to supposed that any hop-grower would use year after year, as is the case on some of the plots, nothing but phosphates, potash and nitrate of soda. Miscellaneous feeding is probably good for plants as well as for animals, and there is a large variety of nitrogenous manures at the disposal of the hop-farmer, to say nothing of what, in its place, is one of the most valuable of all manures, namely, home-made dung. These experiments were begun in 1894 with a new garden of young Fuggle’s hops. A series of experimental plots was marked out, each plot being one-sixth of an acre in area. The plots run parallel with one another, there being four rows of hills in each. The climate of the district is very dry.Weight of Kiln-dried Fuggle’s Hops per Acre.Plot.Annual Manuring per Acre.18961897189818991900Averageof 5Years.Cwt.Cwt.Cwt.Cwt.Cwt.Cwt.APhosphates and potash13½7½8¼20¼811½BPhosphates, potash and 2 cwt. nitrate of soda16½9¼10¼22¼9¾13½CPhosphates, potash and 4 cwt. nitrate of soda16½1212½231115DPhosphates, potash and 6 cwt. nitrate of soda15¼131322½10½14¾EPhosphates, potash and 8 cwt. nitrate of soda1513½15¼23½1115½FPhosphates, potash and 10 cwt. nitrate of soda15131524½10½15¾X30 loads (about 15 tons) London dung1389¾24½10¾13¾The table given above shows the annual yield of hops per acre on each plot, and also the average for each plot over the five years 1896-1900.The general results seem to show that the purchase of town dung for hops is not economical, unless under specially favourable terms as to cost of conveyance, and that it should certainly not be relied upon as a sufficient manure. Home-made dung is in quite a different position, as not only is it richer, but it costs nothing for railway carriage. As a source of nitrogenous manure, purchased dung is on the whole too expensive. There is a large variety of other nitrogenous manures in the market besides nitrate of soda, such, for instance as Peruvian and Damaraland guano, sulphate of ammonia, fish guano, dried blood, rape dust, furriers’ refuse, horn shavings, hoof parings, wool dust, shoddy, &c. All of these may in turn be used for helping to maintain a stock of nitrogen in the soil; and the degree to which manures of this kind have been recently applied in any hop garden will influence the grower in deciding as to the quantity of nitrate of soda he should use in conjunction with them, and also to some extent in fixing the date of its application.Dressings of 8 or 10 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre, such as are applied annually to plots E and F, would be larger than would be put on where the land has been already dressed with dung or with other nitrogenous manures; and even, in the circumstances under notice, although these plots have on the average beaten the others in weight, the hops in some seasons have been distinctly coarser than those more moderately manured—though in the dry season of 1899 the most heavily dressed plot gave actually the best quality as well as the greatest quantity of produce.With regard to the application of nitrate of soda in case the season should turn out to be wet, present experience indicates that, on a soil otherwise liberally manured, 4 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acreapplied not too late, would be a thoroughly safe dressing. In the case of neither dung nor any other nitrogenous fertilizers having been recently applied, there seems no reason for supposing that, even in a wet season, 6 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre applied early would be otherwise than a safe dressing, considering both quantity and quality of produce. In conjunction with dung, or with the early use of other nitrogenous manures, such as fish, guano, rape dust, &c. it would probably be wise not to exceed 4 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre.As to the date of application, April or May is the latest time at which nitrate of soda should, in most circumstances, be applied, and probably April is preferable to May. The quantity used should be applied in separate dressings of not more than 2 cwt. per acre each, put on at intervals of a month. Where the quantity of nitrate of soda used is large, and constitutes the whole of the nitrogenous manure employed, the first dressing may, on fairly deep and retentive soils, be given as early as January; or, if the quantity used is smaller, say in February; while February will, in most cases, probably be early enough for the first dressing in the case of lighter soils. The condition of the soil and the degree and distribution of rainfall during both the previous autumn and the winter, as well as in the spring itself, produce such varying conditions that it is almost impossible to frame general rules.The commonly accepted notion that nitrate of soda is a manure which should be reserved for use during the later period of the growth of the bine appears to be erroneous. The summer months, when the growth of the bine is most active, are the months in which natural nitrification is going on in the soil, converting soil nitrogen and the nitrogen of dung, guano, fish, rape dust, shoddy or other fertilizers into nitrates, and placing this nitrogen at the disposal of the plants; and it appears reasonable, therefore, to suppose that nitrate of soda will be most useful to the hops at the earlier stages of their growth, before the products of that nitrification become abundant. This would especially be so in a season immediately following a wet autumn and winter, which have the effect of washing away into the drains the residual nitrates not utilized by the previous crop.The necessity, whether dung is used or not, and whatever form of nitrogenous manure is employed, of also supplying the hops with an abundance of phosphates, cannot be too strongly urged. The use of phosphates for hops was long neglected by hop-planters, and even now there are many growers who do not realize the full importance of heavy phosphatic manuring. On soils containing an abundance of lime no better or cheaper phosphatic manure can be used than ordinary superphosphate, of which as much as 10 cwt. per acre may be applied without the slightest fear of harm. But if the soil is not decidedly calcareous—that is to say, if it does not effervesce when it is stirred up with some diluted hydrochloric (muriatic) acid—bone dust, phosphatic guano or basic slag should be used as a source of phosphates, at the rate of not less than 10 cwt. per acre. On medium soils, which, without being distinctly calcareous, nevertheless contain a just appreciable quantity of carbonate of lime, it is probably a good plan to use the latter class of manures, alternately with superphosphate, year and year about; but it is wise policy to use phosphatesin some form or otherevery year in every hop garden. They are inexpensive, and without them neither dung, nitrate of soda, ammonia salts nor organic manures can be expected to produce both a full vigorous growth of bine and at the same time a well-matured crop of full-weighted, well-conditioned hops.The use of potash salts, on most soils, is probably not needed when good dung is freely used; but where this is not the case it is safer in most seasons and on most soils to give a dressing of potash salts. On some soils their aid should on no account be dispensed with.Experiments in hop-manuring have also been conducted in connexion with the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent. The main results have been to demonstrate the necessity of a liberal supply of phosphates, if the full benefit is to be reaped from applications of nitrogenous manure.

The recent investigations into the subject of hop-manuring made by Dr Bernard Dyer and Mr F. W. E. Shrivell, at Golden Green, near Tonbridge, Kent, are of interest. In the 1901 report4it was stated that the object in view was to ascertain how far nitrate of soda, in the presence of an abundant supply of phosphates and potash, is capable of being advantageously used as a source of nitrogenous food for hops. An idea long persisted among hop-growers that nitrate of soda was an unsafe manure for hops, being likely to produce rank growth of bine at the expense of quality and even quantity of hops. During recent years, however, owing very largely to the results of these experiments, and of corresponding experiments based upon these, which have been carried out abroad, hop farmers have much more freely availed themselves of the aid of this useful manure; and there is little doubt that the distrust of nitrate of soda as a hop manure which has existed in the past has been largely due to the fact that nitrate of soda, like many other nitrogenous manures, has often been misused (1) by being applied without a sufficient quantity of phosphates and potash, or (2) by being applied too abundantly, or (3) by being applied too late in the season, with the result of unduly delaying the ripening period. On most of the experimental plots nitrate of soda (in conjunction with phosphates and potash) has been used as the sole source of nitrogen; but it is, of course, not be to supposed that any hop-grower would use year after year, as is the case on some of the plots, nothing but phosphates, potash and nitrate of soda. Miscellaneous feeding is probably good for plants as well as for animals, and there is a large variety of nitrogenous manures at the disposal of the hop-farmer, to say nothing of what, in its place, is one of the most valuable of all manures, namely, home-made dung. These experiments were begun in 1894 with a new garden of young Fuggle’s hops. A series of experimental plots was marked out, each plot being one-sixth of an acre in area. The plots run parallel with one another, there being four rows of hills in each. The climate of the district is very dry.

Weight of Kiln-dried Fuggle’s Hops per Acre.

The table given above shows the annual yield of hops per acre on each plot, and also the average for each plot over the five years 1896-1900.

The general results seem to show that the purchase of town dung for hops is not economical, unless under specially favourable terms as to cost of conveyance, and that it should certainly not be relied upon as a sufficient manure. Home-made dung is in quite a different position, as not only is it richer, but it costs nothing for railway carriage. As a source of nitrogenous manure, purchased dung is on the whole too expensive. There is a large variety of other nitrogenous manures in the market besides nitrate of soda, such, for instance as Peruvian and Damaraland guano, sulphate of ammonia, fish guano, dried blood, rape dust, furriers’ refuse, horn shavings, hoof parings, wool dust, shoddy, &c. All of these may in turn be used for helping to maintain a stock of nitrogen in the soil; and the degree to which manures of this kind have been recently applied in any hop garden will influence the grower in deciding as to the quantity of nitrate of soda he should use in conjunction with them, and also to some extent in fixing the date of its application.

Dressings of 8 or 10 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre, such as are applied annually to plots E and F, would be larger than would be put on where the land has been already dressed with dung or with other nitrogenous manures; and even, in the circumstances under notice, although these plots have on the average beaten the others in weight, the hops in some seasons have been distinctly coarser than those more moderately manured—though in the dry season of 1899 the most heavily dressed plot gave actually the best quality as well as the greatest quantity of produce.

With regard to the application of nitrate of soda in case the season should turn out to be wet, present experience indicates that, on a soil otherwise liberally manured, 4 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acreapplied not too late, would be a thoroughly safe dressing. In the case of neither dung nor any other nitrogenous fertilizers having been recently applied, there seems no reason for supposing that, even in a wet season, 6 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre applied early would be otherwise than a safe dressing, considering both quantity and quality of produce. In conjunction with dung, or with the early use of other nitrogenous manures, such as fish, guano, rape dust, &c. it would probably be wise not to exceed 4 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre.

As to the date of application, April or May is the latest time at which nitrate of soda should, in most circumstances, be applied, and probably April is preferable to May. The quantity used should be applied in separate dressings of not more than 2 cwt. per acre each, put on at intervals of a month. Where the quantity of nitrate of soda used is large, and constitutes the whole of the nitrogenous manure employed, the first dressing may, on fairly deep and retentive soils, be given as early as January; or, if the quantity used is smaller, say in February; while February will, in most cases, probably be early enough for the first dressing in the case of lighter soils. The condition of the soil and the degree and distribution of rainfall during both the previous autumn and the winter, as well as in the spring itself, produce such varying conditions that it is almost impossible to frame general rules.

The commonly accepted notion that nitrate of soda is a manure which should be reserved for use during the later period of the growth of the bine appears to be erroneous. The summer months, when the growth of the bine is most active, are the months in which natural nitrification is going on in the soil, converting soil nitrogen and the nitrogen of dung, guano, fish, rape dust, shoddy or other fertilizers into nitrates, and placing this nitrogen at the disposal of the plants; and it appears reasonable, therefore, to suppose that nitrate of soda will be most useful to the hops at the earlier stages of their growth, before the products of that nitrification become abundant. This would especially be so in a season immediately following a wet autumn and winter, which have the effect of washing away into the drains the residual nitrates not utilized by the previous crop.

The necessity, whether dung is used or not, and whatever form of nitrogenous manure is employed, of also supplying the hops with an abundance of phosphates, cannot be too strongly urged. The use of phosphates for hops was long neglected by hop-planters, and even now there are many growers who do not realize the full importance of heavy phosphatic manuring. On soils containing an abundance of lime no better or cheaper phosphatic manure can be used than ordinary superphosphate, of which as much as 10 cwt. per acre may be applied without the slightest fear of harm. But if the soil is not decidedly calcareous—that is to say, if it does not effervesce when it is stirred up with some diluted hydrochloric (muriatic) acid—bone dust, phosphatic guano or basic slag should be used as a source of phosphates, at the rate of not less than 10 cwt. per acre. On medium soils, which, without being distinctly calcareous, nevertheless contain a just appreciable quantity of carbonate of lime, it is probably a good plan to use the latter class of manures, alternately with superphosphate, year and year about; but it is wise policy to use phosphatesin some form or otherevery year in every hop garden. They are inexpensive, and without them neither dung, nitrate of soda, ammonia salts nor organic manures can be expected to produce both a full vigorous growth of bine and at the same time a well-matured crop of full-weighted, well-conditioned hops.

The use of potash salts, on most soils, is probably not needed when good dung is freely used; but where this is not the case it is safer in most seasons and on most soils to give a dressing of potash salts. On some soils their aid should on no account be dispensed with.

Experiments in hop-manuring have also been conducted in connexion with the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent. The main results have been to demonstrate the necessity of a liberal supply of phosphates, if the full benefit is to be reaped from applications of nitrogenous manure.

Tying, Poling and Picking.—Tying the bines to the poles or strings is essentially women’s work. It was formerly always piecework, each woman taking so many acres to tie, but it is found better to pay the women 1s. 8d. to 2s. per day, that they may all work together, and tie the plants in those grounds where they want tying at once. The new modes of poling and training hop plants have also altered the conditions of tying.

Many improvements have been made in the methods of poling and training hops. Formerly two or three poles were placed to each hop-hill or plant-centre in the spring, and removed in the winter, and this was the only mode of training. Recently systems of training on wires and strings fastened to permanent upright poles have been introduced. One arrangement of wires and strings much adopted consists of stout posts set at the end of every row of hop-hills and fastened with stays to keep them in place. At intervals in each row a thick pole is fixed. From post to post in the rows a wire is stretched at a height of ½ ft. from the ground, another about 6 ft. from the ground, and another along the tops of the posts, so that there are three wires. Hooks are clipped on these wires at regular intervals, and coco-nut-fibre strings are threaded on them and fastened from wire to wire, and from post to post, to receive the hop bines. The string is threaded on the hooks continuously, and is put on those of the top wire with a machine called a stringer. There are several methods of training hops with posts or stout poles, wire and string, whose first cost varies from £20 to £40 per acre. The system is cheaper in the long run than that of taking down the poles every year, and the wind does not blow down the poles or injure the hops by banging the poles together. In another method, extensively made use of in Kent and Sussex, stout posts are placed at the ends of each row of plants, and, at intervals where requisite, wires are fastened from top to top only of these posts, whilst coco-nut-fibre strings are fixed by pegs to the ground, close to each hop-stock, whence they radiate upwards for attachment to the wires stretching between the tops of the posts. This method is more simple and less expensive than the system first described, its cost being from £24 to £28 per acre. In this case the plants require to be well “lewed,” or sheltered, as the strings being so light are blown about by the wind. These methods are being largely adopted, and, together with the practice of putting coco-nut-fibre strings from pole to pole in grounds poled in the old-fashioned manner, are important improvements in hop culture, which have tended to increase the production of hops. Where the old system of poling with two or three poles is still adhered to they are always creosoted, most growers having tanks for the purpose; and, in the new methods of poling, the posts and poles are creosoted, dipped or kyanized.

At Wye College, Kent, different systems of planting and training have been tried, the alleys varying in width from 10 ft. down to 5 ft., and the distance between the hills varying quite as widely, so that the number of hills to the acre has ranged from 1210 down to 660. The biggest crop was secured on the plot where hills were 8 ft. apart each way. As a rule, indeed, a wide alley and abundant space between the plants, thus allowing the hops plenty of air and light, produced the best results, besides effecting some saving in the cost of cultivation, as there were only 660 or 680 hills per acre. Of the various methods of training, the umbrella system gave the biggest crop in each of the three years, 1899, 1900, 1901; and it seemed to be the best method, except in seasons when washing was required early, in which case the plants were not so readily cleared of vermin.

Much attention is required to keep the bines in their places on the poles, strings or wire, during the summer. This gives employment to many women, for whose service in this and fruit-picking there is considerable demand, and a woman has no trouble in earning from 1s. 6d. to 1s. 10d. per day from April till September at pleasant and not very arduous labour. The hop-picking follows, and at this women sometimes get 4s. and even 5s. per day. This is the real Kent harvest, which formerly lasted a month or five weeks. Now it rarely extends beyond eighteen days, as it is important to secure the hops before the weather and the aphides, which almost invariably swarm within the bracts of the cones, discolour them and spoil their sale, as brewers insist upon having bright, “coloury” hops. Picking is better done than was formerly the case. The hops are picked more singly, and with comparatively few leaves, and the pickers are of a somewhat better type than the rough hordes who formerly went into Kent for “hopping.” Kent planters engage their pickers beforehand, and write to them, arranging the numbers required and the date of picking. Many families go into Kent for pea- and fruit-picking and remain for hop-picking. Without this great immigration of persons, variously estimated at between 45,000 and 65,000, the crops of hops could not be picked; and fruit-farmers also would be unable to get their soft fruit gathered in time without the help of immigrant hands. The fruit-growers and hop-planters of Kent have greatly improved the accommodation for these immigrants.

Concerning the general question as to the advisability or otherwise of cutting the hop bine at the time of picking,A.D.Hall has ascertained experimentally that if the bine is cut close to the ground at a time when the whole plant is unripe there are removed in the bine and leaves considerable quantities of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid which would have returned to the roots if the bine had not been cut until ripe. The plant, therefore, would retain a substantial store of these constituents for the following year’s growth if the bine were left. Chemical analyses have shown that about 30 ℔ of nitrogen per acre may be saved by allowing the bines to remain uncut, this representing practically one-third of the total amount of nitrogen in the hops, leaf and bine together. There are also from 25 ℔ to 30 ℔ of potash in the growth, of which nine-tenths would return to the roots, with about half the phosphoric acid and a very small proportion of the lime. It has been demonstrated that by the practice of cutting the bines when the hops are picked the succeeding crop is lessened to the extent of about one-tenth. As to stripping off the leaves and lower branches of the plant, it was found that this operation once reduced the crop 10% and once 20%, but that in the year 1899 it did not affect the crop at all. The inference appears to be that when there is a good crop it is not reduced by stripping, but that when there is less vigour in the plant it suffers the more. Hence, it would seem advisable to study the plant itself in connexion with this matter, and to strip a little later, or somewhat less, than usual when the bine is not healthy.

Drying.—After being picked, the hops are taken in pokes—long sacks holding ten bushels—to the oasts to be dried. The oasts are circular or square kilns, or groups of kilns, wherein the green hops are laid upon floors covered with horsehair, under which are enclosed or open stoves or furnaces. The heat from these is evenly distributed among the hops above by draughts below and round them. This is the usual simple arrangement, but patent processes are adopted here and there, though they are by no means general. The hops are from nine to ten hours drying, after which they are taken off the kiln and allowed to cool somewhat, and are then packed tightly into “pockets” 6 ft. long and 2 ft. wide, weighing 1½ cwt., by means of a hop-pressing machine, which has cogs and wheels worked by hand. Of late years more care has been bestowed by some of the leading growers upon the drying of hops, so as to preserve their qualities and volatile essences, and to meet the altered requirements of brewers, who must have bright, well-managed hops for the production of light clear beers for quick draught. The use, for example, of exhaust fans, recently introduced, greatly facilitates drying by drawing a large volume of air through the hops; and as the temperature may at the same time be kept low, the risk of getting overfired samples is considerably reduced, though not entirely obviated. The adoption of the roller floor is another great advance in the process of hop-drying, for this, used in conjunction with a raised platform for the men to stand on when turning, prevents any damage from the feet of the workmen, and reduces the loss of resin to a minimum. The best results are obtained when exhaust fans and the roller floor are associated together. In such cases the roller floor, which empties its load automatically, pours the hop cones into the receiving sheets in usually as whole and unbroken a condition as that in which they went on to the kiln.

Pests of the Hop Crop.—In recent years the difficulties attendant upon hop cultivation have been aggravated, and the expenses increased, by regularly recurring attacks of aphis blight—due to the insectAphis(Phorodon)humuli—which render it necessary to spray or syringe every hop plant, every branch and leaf, with insecticidal solutions three or four times, and sometimes more often, in each season. Quassia and soft-soap solutions are usually employed; they contain from 4 ℔ to 8 ℔ of soft soap, and the extract of from 8 ℔ to 10 ℔ of quassia chips to 100 gallons of water. The soft soap serves as a vehicle to retain the bitterness of the quassia upon the bines and leaves, making them repulsive to the aphides, which are thus starved out. Another pest, the red spider,Tetranychus telarius—really one of the “spinning mites”—is most destructive in very hot summers. Congregating on the under surfaces of the leaves, the red spiders exhaust the sap and cause the leaves to fall, producing the effect known in Germany as “fire-blast.” The hop-wash of soft soap and quassia, so effective against aphis attack, is of little avail in the case of red spider. Some success, however, has attended the use of a solution containing 8 ℔ to 10 ℔ of soft soap to 100 gallons of water, with three pints of paraffin added. It is necessary to apply the washes with great force, in order to break through the webs with which the spiders protect themselves. Hop-washing is done by means of large garden engines worked by hand, but more frequently with horse engines. Resort is sometimes had to steam engines, which force the spraying solution along pipes laid between the rows of hops.Mould or mildew is frequently the source of much loss to hop-planters. It is due to the action of the fungusPodosphaera castagnei, and the mischief is more especially that done to the cones. The only trustworthy remedy is sulphur, employed usually in the form of flowers of sulphur, from 40 ℔ to 60 ℔ per acre being applied at each sulphuring. The powder is distributed by means of a machine drawn by a horse between the rows. The sulphur is fed from a hopper into a blast-pipe, whence it is driven by a fan actuated by the travelling wheels, and falls as a dense, wide-spreading cloud upon the hop-bines. The first sulphuring takes place when the plants are fairly up the poles, and is repeated three or four weeks later; and even again if indications of mildew are present. It may be added that sulphur is also successfully employed in the form of an alkaline sulphide, such as solution of “liver of sulphur,” a variety of potassium sulphide.

Mould or mildew is frequently the source of much loss to hop-planters. It is due to the action of the fungusPodosphaera castagnei, and the mischief is more especially that done to the cones. The only trustworthy remedy is sulphur, employed usually in the form of flowers of sulphur, from 40 ℔ to 60 ℔ per acre being applied at each sulphuring. The powder is distributed by means of a machine drawn by a horse between the rows. The sulphur is fed from a hopper into a blast-pipe, whence it is driven by a fan actuated by the travelling wheels, and falls as a dense, wide-spreading cloud upon the hop-bines. The first sulphuring takes place when the plants are fairly up the poles, and is repeated three or four weeks later; and even again if indications of mildew are present. It may be added that sulphur is also successfully employed in the form of an alkaline sulphide, such as solution of “liver of sulphur,” a variety of potassium sulphide.

(W. Fr.)

1SeeReport from the Select Committee on the Hop Industry(London, 1908).2Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc., 1899.3J. Percival, “The Hop and its English Varieties,”Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc., 1901.4Six Years’ Experiments on Hop Manuring(London, 1901).

1SeeReport from the Select Committee on the Hop Industry(London, 1908).

2Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc., 1899.

3J. Percival, “The Hop and its English Varieties,”Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc., 1901.

4Six Years’ Experiments on Hop Manuring(London, 1901).

HOPE, ANTHONY,the pen-name ofAnthony Hope Hawkins(1863- ), British novelist, who was born on the 9th of February 1863, the second son of the Rev. E. C. Hawkins, Vicar of St Bride’s, Fleet Street, London. He was educated at Marlborough and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was president of the Union Society, and graduated with first classes in Moderations and Final Schools. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1877. He soon began contributing stories and sketches to theSt James’s Gazette, and in 1890 published his first novel,A Man of Mark. This was followed byFather Stafford(1891),Mr Witt’s Widow(1892),Change of AirandSport Royal and Other Stories(1893). By this time he had attracted by his vivacious talent the attention of editors and readers; but it was not till the following year that he attained a great popular success with the publication (May 1894) ofThe Prisoner of Zenda. This was followed a few weeks later byThe Dolly Dialogues(previously published in separate instalments in theWestminster Gazette). Both books became parents of a numerous progeny.The Prisoner of Zenda, owing something to thePrince Ottoof R. L. Stevenson, established a fashion for what was christened, after its fictitious locality, “Ruritanian romance”; while theDolly Dialogues, inspired possibly by “Gyp” and other French dialogue writers, was the forerunner of a whole school of epigrammatic drawing-room comedy.The Prisoner of Zenda, with Mr Alexander as “Rupert Rassendyll,” enjoyed a further success in a dramatized form at the St James’s Theatre, which did still more to popularize the author’s fame. In 1894 also appearedThe God in the Car, a novel suggested by the ambiguous influence on English society of Cecil Rhodes’s career; andHalf a Hero, a complementary study of Australian politics. The same year saw further the publication ofThe Indiscretion of the Duchess, in the style of theDolly Dialogues, and of another collection of stories named (after the first)The Secret of Wardale Court. In 1895 Mr Hawkins publishedCount Antonio, and contributed toDialogues of the Day, edited by Mr Oswald Crawfurd.Comedies of CourtshipandThe Heart of the Princess Osrafollowed in 1896;Phrosoin 1897;Simon DaleandRupert of Hentzau(sequel of thePrisoner of Zenda) 1898; andThe King’s Mirror, a Ruritanian romance with an infusion of serious psychological interest, 1899. The author was advancing from his light comedy and gallant romantic inventions to the graver kind of fiction of whichThe God in the Carhad been an earlier essay.Quisante, published in 1900, was a study of English society face to face with a political genius of an alien type.Tristram of Blent(1901) embodied an ethical study of family pride.The Intrusions of Peggyreflected the effects on society of recent financial fashions. In 1904 he publishedDouble Harness, and in 1905A Servant of the Public, two novels of modern society, containing somewhat cynical pictures of the condition of marriage. With increasing gravity the novelist sacrificed some of the charm of his earlier irresponsible gaiety and buoyancy; but his art retained its wit and urbanity whileit gained in grip of the social conditions of contemporary life. He wrote two plays,The Adventure of Lady Ursula(1898) andPilkerton’s Peerage(1902), and his later novels includeThe Great Miss Driver(1908) andSecond String(1909). Mr Hawkins’s attractive and cultured style and command of plot give him a high place among the modern writers of English fiction. In 1903 he married Miss Elizabeth Somerville Sheldon of New York.

HOPE, THOMAS(c.1770-1831), English art-collector, and author ofAnastasius, born in London about 1770, was the eldest son of John Hope of Amsterdam, and was descended from a branch of an old Scottish family who for several generations were extensive merchants in London and Amsterdam. About the age of eighteen he started on a tour through various parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, where he interested himself especially in architecture and sculpture, making a large collection of the principal objects which attracted his attention. On his return to London about 1796 he purchased a house in Duchess Street, Cavendish Square, which he fitted up in a very elaborate style, from drawings made by himself. In 1807 he published sketches of his furniture, accompanied by letterpress, in a folio volume, entitledHousehold Furniture and Interior Decoration, which had considerable influence in effecting a change in the upholstery and interior decoration of houses, notwithstanding that Byron had referred scornfully to him as “House-furnisher withal, one Thomas hight.” Hope’s furniture designs were in that pseudo-classical manner which is generally called “English Empire.” It was sometimes extravagant, and often heavy, but was much more restrained than the wilder and later flights of Sheraton in this style. At the best, however, it was a not very inspiring mixture of Egyptian and Roman motives. In 1809 he published theCostumes of the Ancients, and in 1812Designs of Modern Costumes, works which display a large amount of antiquarian research. He was also, as his father had been—the elder Hope’s country house near Haarlem was crowded with fine pictures—a munificent patron of the highest forms of art, and both at his London house and his country seat at Deepdene near Dorking he formed large collections of paintings, sculpture and antiques. Deepdene in his day became a famous resort of men of letters as well as of people of fashion, and among the luxuries suggested by his fine taste was a miniature library in several languages in each bedroom. Thorvaldsen, the Danish sculptor, was indebted to him for the early recognition of his talents, and he also gave frequent employment to Chantrey and Flaxman—it was to his order that the latter illustrated Dante. In 1819 he published anonymously his novelAnastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek, written at the close of the 18th century, a work which, chiefly on account of the novel character of its subject, caused a great sensation. It was at first generally attributed to Lord Byron, who told Lady Blessington that he wept bitterly on reading it because he had not written it and Hope had. But, though remarkable for the acquaintance it displays with Eastern life, and distinguished by considerable imaginative vigour and much graphic and picturesque description, its paradoxes are not so striking as those of Lord Byron; and, notwithstanding some eloquent and forcible passages, the only reason which warranted its ascription to him was the general type of character to which its hero belonged. Hope died on the 3rd of February 1831. He was the author of two works published posthumously—theOrigin and Prospects of Man(1831), in which his speculations diverged widely from the usual orthodox opinions, and anHistorical Essay on Architecture(1835), an elaborate description of the architecture of the middle ages, illustrated by drawings made by himself in Italy and Germany. He is commonly known in literature as “Anastasius” Hope. He married (1806) Louisa de la Poer Beresford, daughter of Lord Decies, archbishop of Tuam.

HOPEDALE,a township of Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; pop. (1905; state census) 2048; (1910) 2188. It is served by the Milford & Uxbridge (electric) street railway, and (for freight) by the Grafton & Upton railway. The town lies in the “dale” between Milford and Mendon, and is cut from N.W. to S.E. by the Mill river, which furnishes good water power at its falls. The principal manufactures are textiles, boots and shoes, and, of most importance, cotton machinery. The great cotton machinery factories here are owned by the Draper Company. Hopedale has a public park on the site of the Ballou homestead, with a bronze statue of Adin Ballou; a memorial church erected by George A. and Eben S. Draper; the Bancroft Memorial Library, given by Joseph B. Bancroft in memory of his wife; and a marble drinking fountain with statuary by Waldo Story, the gift of Susan Preston Draper, General W. F. Draper’s wife. The village is remarkable for the comfortable cottages of the workers.

The history of Hopedale centres round the Rev. Adin Ballou (1803-1890), a distant relative of Hosea Ballou;1he left, in succession, the ministry of the Christian Connexion (1823) and that of the Universalist Church (1831), because of his restorationist views. In 1831 he became pastor of an independent church in Mendon. An ardent exponent of temperance, the anti-slavery movement, woman’s rights, the peace cause and Christian non-resistance (even through the Civil War), and of “Practical Christian Socialism,” it was in the interests of the last cause that he founded Hopedale, or “Fraternal Community No. 1,” in Milford, in April 1842, the first compact of the community having been drawn up in January 1841. Thirty persons joined with him, and lived in a single house on a poor farm of 258 acres, purchased in June 1841. Ballou was for several years the president of the community, which was run on the plan that all should have an equal voice as to the use of property, in spite of the fact that there was individual holding of property. The community, however, owned the instruments of production, with the single exception of the important patent rights held by Ebenezer D. Draper. The result was bickerings between those who were joint stockholders and those whose only profit came from their manual labour. In a short time the control of the community came into the hands of its richest members, E. D. Draper and his brother, George Draper (1817-1887), who owned three-fourths of the joint stock. In 1856 there was a total deficit of about $12,000. The Draper brothers bought up the joint stock of the community at par and paid its debts, and the community soon ceased to exist save as a religious society. After George Draper’s death the control of the mills passed to his sons. These included General William Franklin Draper (1842-1910), a Republican representative in Congress in 1892-1897 and U.S. ambassador to Italy in 1897-1900, and Eben Sumner Draper (b. 1858), lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts in 1906-1908 and governor in 1909-1911. In 1867 the community was merged with Hopedale parish, a Unitarian organization. Hopedale was separated from Milford and incorporated as a township in 1886.

See Adin Ballou’sHistory of Milford(Boston, 1882), hisHistory of the Hopedale Community, edited by William S. Heywood (Lowell, 1897), hisBiographyby the same editor (Lowell, 1896) and hisPractical and Christian Socialism(Hopedale, 1854); George L. Carey, “Adin Ballou and the Hopedale Community” (in theNew World, vol. vii., 1898); Lewis G. Wilson, “Hopedale and Its Founder” (inThe New England Magazine, vol. x., 1891); and William F. Draper,Recollections of a Varied Career(Boston, 1908).

1Adin Ballou wroteAn Elaborate History and Genealogy of the Ballous in America(Providence, R.I., 1888).

HOPE-SCOTT, JAMES ROBERT(1812-1873), English barrister and Tractarian, was born on the 15th of July 1812, at Great Marlow, Berkshire, the third Son of Sir Alexander Hope, and grandson of the second earl of Hopetoun. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he was a contemporary and friend of Gladstone and J. H. Newman, and in 1838 was called to the bar. Between 1840 and 1843 he helped to found Trinity College, Glenalmond. He was one of the leaders of the Tractarian movement and entirely in Newman’s confidence. In 1851 he was received with Manning into the Roman Catholic church. At this time he was making a very large income at the Parliamentary bar. He only commenced serious practice in this branch of his profession in 1843, but by the end of 1845 he stood at the head of it and in 1849 was made a Queen’s Counsel. In 1847 he married Miss Lockhart, granddaughter of Sir Walter Scott, and on her coming into possession of Abbotsford six years later,assumed the surname of Hope-Scott. He retired from the bar in 1870 and died on the 29th of April 1873.

HOPFEN, HANS VON(1835-1904), German poet and novelist, was born on the 3rd of January 1835, at Munich. He studied law, and in 1858, having shown marked poetical promise, he was received into the circle of young poets whom King Maximilian II. had gathered round him, and thereafter devoted himself to literature. In 1862 he made his debut as an author, withLieder und Balladen, which were published in theMünchener Dichterbuch, edited by E. Geibel. After travelling in Italy (1862), France (1863) and Austria (1864), he was appointed, in 1865, general secretary of the “Schillerstiftung,” and in this capacity settled at Vienna. The following year, however, he removed to Berlin, in a suburb of which, Lichterfelde, he died on the 19th of November 1904. Of Hopfen’s lyric poems,Gedichte(4th ed., Berlin, 1883), many are of considerable talent and originality; but it is as a novelist that he is best known. The novelsPeregretta(1864);Verdorben zu Paris(1868, new ed. 1892);Arge Sitten(1869);Der graue Freund(1874, 2nd ed., 1876); andVerfehlte Liebe(1876, 2nd ed., 1879) are attractive, while of his shorter storiesTiroler Geschichten(1884-1885) command most favour.

An autobiographical sketch of Hopfen is contained in K. E. Franzos,Geschichte des Erstlingswerkes(1904).

HOPI,orMoki(Moquis), a tribe of North American Indians of Shoshonean stock. They are Pueblo or town-building Indians and occupy seven villages on three lofty plateaus of northern Arizona. The first accounts of them date from the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540. With the town-building Indians of New Mexico they were then subdued. They shared in the successful revolt of 1542, but again suffered defeat in 1586. In 1680, however, they made a successful revolt against the Spaniards. They weave very fine blankets, make baskets and are expert potters and wood-carvers. Their houses are built of stone set in mortar. Their ceremonies are of an elaborate nature, and in the famous “snake-dance” the performers carry live rattlesnakes in their mouths. They number some 1600. (See alsoPueblo Indians.)

For Hopi festivals, see21st Ann. Report Bureau of Amer. Ethnology(1899-1900).

HÖPKEN, ANDERS JOHAN,Count von(1712-1789), Swedish statesman, was the son of Daniel Niklas Höpken, one of Arvid Horn’s most determined opponents and a founder of the Hat party. When in 1738 the Hats came into power the younger Höpken obtained a seat in the secret committee of the diet, and during the Finnish war of 1741-42 was one of the two commissioners appointed to negotiate with Russia. During the diet of 1746-1747 Höpken’s influence was of the greatest importance. It was chiefly through his efforts that the estates issued a “national declaration” protesting against the arrogant attitude of the Russian ambassador, who attempted to dominate the crown prince Adolphus Frederick and the government. This spirited policy restored the waning prestige of the Hat party and firmly established their anti-Muscovite system. In 1746 Höpken was created a senator. In 1751 he succeeded Gustaf Tessin as prime minister, and controlled the foreign policy of Sweden for the next nine years. On the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, he contracted an armed neutrality treaty with Denmark (1756); but in the following year acceded to the league against Frederick II. of Prussia. During the crisis of 1760-1762, when the Hats were at last compelled to give an account of their stewardship, Höpken was sacrificed to party exigencies and retired from the senate as well as from the premiership. On the 22nd of June 1762, however, he was created a count. After the revolution of 1772 he re-entered the senate at the particular request of Gustavus III., but no longer exercised any political influence. His caustic criticism of many of the royal measures, moreover, gave great offence, and in 1780 he retired into private life. Höpken was a distinguished author. The noble style of his biographies and orations has earned for him the title of the Swedish Tacitus. He helped to found theVetenskaps Akademi, and when Gustavus III. in 1786 established the Swedish Academy, he gave Höpken the first place in it.

See L. G. de Geer,Minne af Grefve A. J. von Höpken(Stockholm, 1882); Carl Silfverstolpe,Grefve Höpkens Skrifter(Stockholm, 1890-1893).

(R. N. B.)

HOPKINS, EDWARD WASHBURN(1857- ), American Sanskrit scholar, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 8th of September 1857. He graduated at Columbia University in 1878, studied at Leipzig, where he received the degree of Ph.D. in 1881, was an instructor at Columbia in 1881-1885, and professor at Bryn Mawr in 1885-1895, and became professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology in Yale University in 1895. He became secretary of the American Oriental Society and editor of itsJournal, to which he contributed many valuable papers, especially on numerical and temporal categories in early Sanskrit literature. He wroteCaste in Ancient India(1881);Manu’s Lawbook(1884);Religions of India(1895);The Great Epic of India(1901); andIndia Old and New(1901).

HOPKINS, ESEK(1718-1802), the first admiral of the United States navy, was born at Scituate, Rhode Island, in 1718. He belonged to one of the most prominent Puritan families of New England. At the age of twenty he went to sea, and rapidly came to the front as a good sailor and skilful trader. Marrying, three years later, into a prosperous family of Newport, and thus increasing his influence in Rhode Island, he became commodore of a fleet of seventeen merchantmen, the movements of which he directed with skill and energy. In war as well as peace, Hopkins was establishing his reputation as one of the leading colonial seamen, for as captain of a privateer he made more than one brilliant and successful venture during the Seven Years’ War. In the interval between voyages, moreover, he was engaged in Rhode Island politics, and rendered efficient support to his brother Stephen against the Ward faction. At the outbreak of the War of Independence, Hopkins was appointed brigadier-general by Rhode Island, was commissioned, December 1775, by the Continental Congress, commander-in-chief of the navy, and in January 1776 hoisted his flag as admiral of the eight converted merchantmen which then constituted the navy of the United States. His first cruise resulted in a great acquisition of material of war and an indecisive fight with H.M.S. “Glasgow.” At first this created great enthusiasm, but criticism soon made itself heard. Hopkins and two of his captains were tried for breach of orders, and, though ably defended by John Adams, were censured by Congress. The commands, nevertheless, were not interfered with, and a prize was soon afterwards named after the admiral by their orders. But the difficulties and mutual distrust continually increased, and in 1777 Congress summarily dismissed Hopkins from his command, on the complaint of some of his officers. Before the order arrived, the admiral had detected the conspiracy against him, and had had the ringleaders tried and degraded by court-martial. But the Congress followed up its order by dismissing him from the navy. For the rest of his life he lived in Rhode Island, playing a prominent part in state politics, and he died at Providence in 1802.

See Edward Field,Life of Esek Hopkins(Providence, 1898); also an article by R. Grieve in theNew England Magazineof November 1897.

HOPKINS, MARK(1802-1887), American educationist, great-nephew of the theologian Samuel Hopkins, was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on the 4th of February 1802. He graduated in 1824 at Williams College, where he was a tutor in 1825-1827, and where in 1830, after having graduated in the previous year at the Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfield, he became professor of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric. In 1833 he was licensed to preach in Congregational churches. He was president of Williams College from 1836 until 1872. He was one of the ablest and most successful of the old type of college president. His volume of lectures onEvidences of Christianity(1846) was long a favourite text-book. Of his other writings, the chief wereLectures on Moral Science(1862),The Law of Love and Love as a Law(1869),An Outline Study of Man(1873),The Scriptural Idea of Man(1883), andTeachings and Counsels(1884). Dr Hopkins took a lifelong interest in Christian missions, and from 1857 until his death was president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (the American Congregational Mission Board). He died at Williamstown, on the 17th of June 1887. His son,Henry Hopkins(1837-1908), was also from 1903 till his death president of Williams College.

See Franklin Carter’sMark Hopkins(Boston, 1892), in the “American Religious Leaders” series, and Leverett W. Spring’sMark Hopkins, Teacher(New York, 1888), being No. 4, vol. i., of the “Monographs of the Industrial Educational Association.”

Mark Hopkins’s brother,Albert Hopkins(1807-1872), was long associated with him at Williams College, where he graduated in 1826 and was successively a tutor (1827-1829), professor of mathematics and natural philosophy (1829-1838), professor of natural philosophy and astronomy (1838-1868) and professor of astronomy (1868-1872). In 1835 he organized and conducted a Natural History Expedition to Nova Scotia, said to have been the first expedition of the kind sent out from any American college, and in 1837, at his suggestion and under his direction, was built at Williams College an astronomical observatory, said to have been the first in the United States built at a college exclusively for purposes of instruction. He died at Williamstown on the 24th of May 1872.

See Albert C. Sewall’sLife of Professor Albert Hopkins(1879).

HOPKINS, SAMUEL(1721-1803), American theologian, from whom the Hopkinsian theology takes its name, was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, on the 17th of September 1721. He graduated at Yale College in 1741; studied divinity at Northampton, Massachusetts, with Jonathan Edwards; was licensed to preach in 1742, and in December 1743 was ordained pastor of the church in the North Parish of Sheffield, or Housatonick (now Great Barrington), Massachusetts, at that time a small settlement of only thirty families. There he laboured—preaching, studying and writing—until 1769, for part of the time (1751-1758) in intimate association with his old teacher, Edwards, whose call to Stockbridge he had been instrumental in procuring. His theological views having met with much opposition, however, he was finally dismissed from the pastorate on the pretext of want of funds for his support. From April 1770 until his death on the 20th of December 1803, he was the pastor of the First Church in Newport, Rhode Island, though during 1776-1780, while Newport was occupied by the British, he preached at Newburyport, Mass., and at Canterbury and Stamford, Conn. In 1799 he had an attack of paralysis, from which he never wholly recovered. Hopkins’s theological views have had a powerful influence in America. Personally he was remarkable for force and energy of character, and for the utter fearlessness with which he followed premises to their conclusions. In vigour of intellect and in strength and purity of moral tone he was hardly inferior to Edwards himself. Though he was originally a slave-holder, to him belongs the honour of having been the first among the Congregational ministers of New England to denounce slavery both by voice and pen; and to his persistent though bitterly opposed efforts are probably chiefly to be attributed the law of 1774, which forbade the importation of negro slaves into Rhode Island, as also that of 1784, which declared that all children of slaves born in Rhode Island after the following March should be free. His training school for negro missionaries to Africa was broken up by the confusion of the American War of Independence. Among his publications are a valuableLife and Character of Jonathan Edwards(1799), and numerous pamphlets, addresses and sermons, includingA Dialogue concerning the Slavery of the Africans, showing it to be the Duty and Interest of the American States to emancipate all their African Slaves(1776), andA Discourse upon the Slave Trade and the History of the Africans(1793). His distinctive theological tenets are to be found in his important work,A System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation, Explained and Defended(1793), which has had an influence hardly inferior to that exercised by the writings of Edwards himself. They may be summed up as follows: God so rules the universe as to produce its highest happiness, considered as a whole. Since God’s sovereignty is absolute, sin must be, by divine permission, a means by which this happiness of the whole is secured, though that this is its consequence, renders it no less heinous in the sinner. Virtue consists in preference for the good of the whole to any private advantage; hence the really virtuous man must willingly accept any disposition of himself that God may deem wise—a doctrine often called “willingness to be damned.” All have natural power to choose the right, and are therefore responsible for their acts; but all men lack inclination to choose the right unless the existing “bias” of their wills is transformed by the power of God from self-seeking into an effective inclination towards virtue. Hence preaching should demand instant submission to God and disinterested goodwill, and should teach the worthlessness of all religious acts or dispositions which are less than these, while recognizing that God can grant or withhold the regenerative change at his pleasure.

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