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in the time of the Czechoslovakian socialist economy The main change, which was significantly reflected in
after 1948, and emphasis was, therefore, fortunately, the landscape in the second half of the 20 century, was
th
still placed on maintaining the production and the transition to large-scale production and machine
organisation of hop growing. The Purchasing Stock picking of hops. In 1943, a hop picking machine was first
of Hops, a state enterprise, was founded in 1952, the tested in Žatec. Around the 1970s, manual picking of
Hop Growing Station in 1954, and the Hops Purchasing hops has almost completely disappeared. Since then, the
Enterprise was founded in 1958. In connection harvested hops have been transported to large utility hall
with changes in the rural economy, where private buildings, the so-called "česáren" (hop-picking rooms),
ownership was suppressed, the whole structure of built in almost every hop growing village. Here, picking is
hop growing changed towards mass production and performed automatically on a picking machine. This has
the mechanical picking of hops. However, most of the speeded up the whole process, and the work can take
objects for drying, storing, and packing hops, were place even in bad weather. On the contrary, many village
utilised continuously due to their quality and utility farmsteads throughout the region fell out of the entire
properties, and this helped in their preservation. production cycle, subsequently fell into disrepair due to
many factors, and many of them disappeared.
In 1963, academician Ctibor Blattný stated in the
literature that only in some locations, where hops
grow and ripped, they give a product of exceptionally CARTOGRAPHIC SOURCES TO CAPTURE THE
high qualities. One of such locations included DEVELOPMENT OF HOP GROWING IN THE SECOND
th
Czechoslovakia. The concentrated cultivation of HALF OF THE 20 CENTURY
hops only in certain areas is the result of a process In the 1950s, aerial photography of the state was
that has lasted for centuries. This concentration must completed (begun in the 1930s), which is the only one
be understood comprehensively. It was decided not to fully capture, for example, the resulting historical
only by the conditions of the area but equally and division of the agricultural landscape just before the
inseparably by the variety of hops, the method of stage of the merging of land and disturbing its dividing
cultivation, and knowledge of cultivation. landscape elements. These images were georeferenced
with extraordinary accuracy in a seamless form. However,
Only all these factors together lead to the cultivation the photography took place in different months of
of high-quality Czech hops, the quality of which is the growing season, which is why it is often difficult to
unattainable elsewhere. distinguish the areas of hop fields in the images. 137
Detail of aerial photo on the part of the component part 01: Development of the village of Stekník in the southern part on an orthophoto map from 1953