With Plate 10 and z Tert-figuns) V e r t z i i h wilt of hops was first recorded by Hams (1927) at Penshurst, Kent, in vars. Fuggle and Tolhurst. From 1930 onwards new outbreaks were reported in Kent, Susses and Herefordshire, and by 1937 about twelve had been identified. Vnticiuiran a b u t r u m Reinke & Berth. was isolated readily from the wood of diseased bines and from the roots and underground stem system, but no conidiophores were observed on the aerial parts of plants under field conditions. Young hop plants inoculated with the pathogen developed all the characteristic symptoms of wilt (Harris, 1936; H a r r i s & Furneaux,1938). From a study of the outbreak at Penshurst, H a r r i s (1936) concluded that V. ulboatrum was present in most of the plants in an affected field whether the bines wilt before hop picking or not, and that the intensity of attack was related primarily to fluctuations in the seasonal and soil conditions under which a particular plant was growing, the intensity of wilt being greatest in wet seasons and in wet parts of the hopfield. As a possible method of control, growers were advised to improve the drainage system in affected fields and not to plant hops on ground which had a high summer water-table caused by springs, unless the water from these could be piped away. By 1937 the disease was very severe in a number of Kentish hopfields and the writer was appointed to continue the investigations of the disease on an intensive scale. This paper deals with work begun in July 1938; preliminary observations made in 193have been described (Keyworth, 19390, a).
T H E HOP PLANT AND ITS CULTIVATIONThe hop has L perennial rootstock which bears annual stems (bines). In March the stock is trimmed, and in April and May many young bines grow from buds on it; these are thinned to six or eight which grow up strings to wires stretched about 12 ft. above the hopfield. Flowers form on the lateral branches and the hops ripen ahd are picked in September. The bines then die back, leaving thickened basal podons which can be used as cuttings. Hops are planted symmetrically in various ways. The system most common in Kent is the squme plant in which the hops are planted at the corners of squires of side 61 ft., with alleys between the plants at right angles to each other, so that the ground can be cultivated in two directions. Another system is the Worcester plant in which the hops are planted 3 ft. apart in rows which are 7 ft. apart, and the alleys between the hops are cultivated in one direction only. Other systems of planting differ slightly from these, but all fall into one of two categories, those in which the ground UUL be cultivated in two directions at right angles and those in which it can be cultivated in one direction only. These symmetrical systems of planting make it possible to map hopfields to scale indicating the exact positions of diseased and normal plants : the directions of spread of the disease may bear a definite relation to the system of planting.
SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASEAffected leaves ...