"Douglas" wrote
In the County of Kent, England, (known as the 'The Garden of England'
because of its many fecund orchards and its balmy summer weather so
suitable for growing hops and hard fruits such as apples), the hop-pickers
families including the women and children from the London slums used to
gather at harvest time, lived in tents and made some much needed wages.
The men tended and cut the hops and in order to carry out the work they
stood and walked about standing on very high wooden stilts.
The women and children gathered the cut hop-heads, packed them into
baskets
and did all the tidying up. They treated it as a holiday.
I think it is a pity that the noble tradition has now passed.
Doug.

Anyone who wants to experience the "noble tradition" of handcropping
for a "holiday", could join the workgangs of East-Europeans who do such
work on British farms for a pittance.

Only very poor people will tolerate such working conditions; which is
why it was done by London's slum inhabitants (and rural women and
children in Herefordshire, and children in Scotland).

Janet.