Hi David As I said they are only called "gardens" in Kent. Here in Herefordshire they are grown in hop-yards. These were normally quite small and enclosed with tall hedges to help protect the hops from wind. In the past they were grown up poles, and you would not get much for your crop if they all blew over onto the ground. So I guess that the term (both of which come from the same origin and indeed to an American their "yard" is what we call a garden in England) indicates a smaller more enclosed plot of land rather than a larger, more exposed "field" - which in the 16th and 17th centuries would have been even more so than what we know as a tyical field today, as they would have been the "open fields" before enclosure. And yes we have a lot of "strawberry fields" in Herefordshire now - mostly covered by poly-tunnels to protect them from rain and to extend the season too. Now we import pickers for them rather than the hops and they mostly come from Eastern Europe. Polly ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Daniell" <ddaniell@woosh.co.nz> To: <eng-hereford@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 2:50 PM Subject: Re: [HEF] Hops Polly, Thank you for your kind and informative response. Its a while since I read the Wikipedia item and yet I am sure i did not take on board that they were treated as a perennial plant. One thing I had noted is that they seem to be grown in hop-gardens. Now, why the word garden? A choice piece of land? Hmmm, isn't there a song about strawberry fields . . . Thanks, David On 30/05/2008, at 1:37 AM, Polly Rubery wrote: > Hi David > > Hops were a farm crop like any other (wheat, oats, barley etc) and so > someone who grew them was called a farmer, and his farm labourers > would have > done most of the work concerned with growing them throughout the year. > However they used to require a large labour force to hand pick them, > so as > the acreage rose and the number of farm labourers employed fell over > the > Victorian period, the tradition of "hop-pickers" coming to pick them > from > the neighbouring industrial areas (in Herefordshire the West > Midlands and > South Wales and in Kent, London) arose. > > Where they did differ from other farm crops is that they were > perennial > crops, and so did not have to be sown every year like those grown > from seed > (such as the grain crops). Instead the fields of hops (in > Herefordshire > "yards" and in Kent "gardens") were planted up from time to time > either with > dormant root-stocks ("sets") during the winter and the spring, or > cuttings. > > It is quite possible that this may have been done by someone with > specialist > knowledge who called himself a "hop-planter" but the only reference > in my > own research to someone so described, is very early on in the period > when > hops first started to be grown, and he seems to be a "farmer" and so > perhaps > a "planter" in the same way as those with overseas plantations were so > called. > > Also most hits in a Google search on the term seem to refer to the > person > growing the hops, rather then someone working with them. > > If anyone else can offer a definitive answer on this I'd be very > interested > too! > Polly ---- ENG-HEREFORD Mailing List ---- A genealogy and local history list covering the County of Hereford ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-HEREFORD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message