not less incorruptible because he twits the
farmer with making his fortune out of hops,
and calls himself a poor devil, laughing very
heartily, as if he liked being a poor devil, and
only pretended to envy the money-making
hop-grower. He generally comes alone, but
now and then, as a check upon him, the stout
superior drops in, unexpectedly, and re-weighs
what he has booked. One by one, the great
pockets are rolled into the scale and rolled
out again, and laid all in a row like bloated
porpoises — the handles at the corners being
the two short sprawling fins. Then my
conductor, to expedite matters (though this is
the exciseman's business), bestrides one of the
porpoises, like a merry merman under the
sea, and with a basin of ink in one hand, and
a small painting brush in the other, cries out,
" Number ? " The supervisor refers to his
book, and answers, " One hundred and fifty ; "
and those three figures are drawn upon
the animal's back, a little above the snout.
" Weight ? " " One, two, twelve." Down
goes one hundredweight, two quarters, twelve
pounds. Next, in letters four inches long
(according to the statute), he adds his own
name and parish, and the date, with an indignant
allusion to an act intended to be passed
last session ; which, abolishing this part of the
ceremony, would have robbed Farleigh hops
of their glory in the market. Next comes
one hundred and fifty-one :— weight, one, two,
ten. One hundred and fifty-two :— weight,
one, two, eleven. Finally, the supervisor
(checking the figures) takes the brush, and
marks a cross upon the seam of the mouth of
the sack, to prevent frauds on the Government
by afterwards squeezing in more hops. This
is called '' sealing," which being done, he
doses his book with the intention of calling
in six months' time for a duty of one penny
and twelve twentieths of a farthing per pound
weight. This is called the old duty. The
new duty of three farthings and eight
twentieths of a farthing (making up
twopence), and the additional duty of five per
cent., will not be applied for till long after
next year's hops are picked.

Not yet, however, is the grower sure of his
profit. The hops may remain on his hands
for a twelvemonth, when they will be
considered as " old hops," and lose much in value.
Nor can the abundance of one season find a
balance in the deficiency of others. In a year
or two, if kept, they will be worthless — as
odourless and flavourless as mere chaff. Thus
the steadiest of hop-growers — although he may
never buy standing crops, selling them and
buying them again (like court cards in the
game of speculation), on the perilous chance of
their improving or deteriorating; although
he may grow hardy and luxuriant kinds; and
although he may determine never to bet a
sixpence on the probable amount of the duty
— must look upon his business as a species of
gambling, rather than as a legitimate branch
of husbandry. Woe betide the man who, with
too small a capital to carry him over reverses,
sets up as a hop-planter! Not hooping-cough,
nor measles, nor all the several ills that infant
flesh is heir to, can be compared with the
dangers that have threatened this crop from
the time when first its tender shoots were
guided to the hop-pole, till now, comparatively
safe, the flowers are picked, and dried,
and weighed. In the warm nights of early
summer, when the bine will grow an inch
within an hour, fleas and fireblasts threatened
it. When the clusters hung so large and full,
that everybody (but the wary) prophesy the
duty will reach an enormous figure, Egyptian
plagues of green or long-winged flies, coming
from no one knows where, might settle on
it, and, in a single night, turn flower and
leaf as black as if they had been half consumed
by fire. " Honey-dew," that frothy kind of
saliva which a little insect gathers round
itself, might fall upon it, and prove no
less destructive. Red spiders, otter moths,
and the " vermin " which spring from their
eggs, might any day sit down, uninvited,
to a banquet costing a couple of millions
sterling to the Kentish growers alone. Any
cold autumn night, "when the breath of
winter comes from far away," might blight
them ; and, finally, mould might suddenly
eat up every vestige of flower while the
hops were waiting for the picker. Ah !
if a tithe of the care and culture that are
bestowed upon this tender plant could be
devoted to some of those boys, whose sad want
of mending has been recently pointed out
in these pages; if you would take a single
boy, as Sterne took his single captive ; as
tenderly provide him with a healthy spot ;
as carefully train his young ideas as the
sprouts and tendrils of this plant are
trained ; as watchfully strive to keep him
from all blights and harms — might you not
here expect a crop more sure, and not less
golden ?

Throughout the year wagers are extensively
laid in the counties of Kent and Sussex (but
particularly in the former), upon the amount
of duty annually declared by the Excise, in
respect of all the hops gathered throughout
the country. Long before anything like data
whereon to found a calculation can be obtained,
large sums are staked upon the result of the
crop. In Canterbury, Rochester, and Maidstone
are the Kentish " Tattersall's," which, together
with a few of the ancient inns in Southwark
(where the hop factors live, and hold their
principal market), comprise the head-quarters
for hop betting: although this gambling is not
confined to the trade, but extends to all classes
in the hop districts. Almost every tradesman
and boy has his "book," or his chance in
some " hop club." On the publication of the
duty, many thousands of pounds change
hands, and every possible scheme is resorted
to throughout the summer to procure the
latest intelligence of the condition of the plant
in the chief districts, so as to enable the more