In Worcestershire and Herefordshire hop-gardens are always called
hop-yards, which seems to be only a local and more ancient form of the
same word, and from the same root. The termination occurs also in
"orchard"--from the Anglo-Saxon _ortgeard_ (a wort-yard)
--"olive-yard," and "vineyard."
The quotation from the _Perfitie Platforme of a Hoppe Garden_ refers
to "a little black flye," now called "the flea" (Worcestershire plural
"flen"), really a beetle like the "turnip fly," and it is the first
pest that attacks the hop every year.
"First the flea, then the fly,
Then the lice, and then they die,"
is a couplet repeated in all the hop districts to-day, but the damage
done by the flea is not to be compared to that caused by the next
pest, the fly. The latter is one of the numerous species of aphis
which begins its attack in the winged state, and after producing
wingless green lice in abundance--which further increase by the
process known as "gemmation"--reappears with wings in the final
generation of the lice, and hibernates in readiness for its visitation
in the spring next year.
So long as the hop plant maintains its health the aphis is
comparatively harmless, for the plant is then able to elaborate to the
full the bitter principle which is its natural protection. On a really
hot day in July it is sometimes possible to detect the distinctive
scent of the hop quite plainly in walking through the plantation, long
before any hops appear, and when this is noticeable very little of the
aphis blight can be found.
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