ood mould, or dung and earth mixed. The hills were like
mole-hills 3 feet high, and sometimes were large enough to have as
many as 20 poles, so that some hop yards must have looked very
different then from what they do now, even when poles are retained;
but from two to five poles per hill was the more usual number.
Cultivation was much the same as in Reynold Scott's time, and picking
was still done on a 'floor' prepared by levelling the hills, watering,
treading, and sweeping the ground, round which the pickers sat and
picked into baskets, but the hop crib was also used.

It was considered better not to let the hops get too ripe, as the
growers were aware of the value of a fresh, green-looking sample; and
Worlidge advises the careful exclusion of leaves and stalks, though
Markham does not agree with him. Kilns were of two sorts: the English
kiln made of wood, lath, and clay; the French of brick, lime, and
sand, not so liable to burn as the former and therefore better.[344]
One method of drying was finely to bed the kiln with wheat straw laid
on the hair-cloth, the hops being spread 8 inches thick over this,
'and then you shall keepe a fire a little more fervent than for the
drying of a kiln full of malt,' the fire not to be of wood, for that
made the hops smoky and tasted the beer, but of straw! Worlidge,
strangely, recommended the bed of the kiln to be covered with tin, as
much better than hair-cloth, for then any sort of fuel would do as
well as charcoal, since the smoke did not pass through the hops.

Besides Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire,
and Rutlandshire; Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire were recommended by
Markham for hop growing, the great hop counties of to-day being passed
over by him.

The growth of hemp and flax had by this time considerably decayed,
owing to the want of encouragement to trade in these commodities, the
lack of experience in growing them, and the tithes which in some years
amounted to more than the profits.[345] An acre of good flax was worth
from L7 to L12; but if 'wrought up fit to sell in the market' from L15
to L20.

Woad was considered a 'very rich commodity', but according to Blyth it
robbed the land if long continued upon it, although if moderately used
it prepared land for corn, drawing a 'different juice from what the
corn requires'. It more than doubled the rent of land, and had been
sold at from L6 to L20 a ton, the produce of an acre. John Lawrence