Hopping (1840): going from bad to worse

Post date: Apr 03, 2012 7:41:24 PM

Extract from Hereford Journal 8th July 1840:

Wateringbury and Mereworth : The hops, to all appearances, are going from bad to worse since last week. In the low grounds there is a great increase of fly and lice, and the honey-dew has made its appearance in many grounds, and appears to increase in the lower part of Wateringbury. In the higher grounds it is not so bad, but the bines have not a good appearance. Many grounds are short of bine, and although some of them are making their midsummer shoots, still the vermin continue to follow. Should their increase continue they will be destructive to a greater part of the crop. The grounds have a similar appearance to what they had fifteen or sixteen years ago, when they paid such a very small duty.

The Morning Chronicle of 19th August 1840 reported on the hurricane that had hit the Maidstone area the day before destroying an estimated quarter of the hop crop :

It must be observed that all the following notices were written previously to the hurricane of yesterday. WATERINGBURY AND MEREWORTH.-The burr is here coming into hop quite fast. In some of the grounds. where the vermin has been very bad, the cold nights and hot days have been injurious. At the annual hop dinner at the King's Head Wateringbury, at which there were were between thirty and forty gentlemen present, principally growers and factors, the majority were against £30,000 duty.