448 [Senate 



cient air, — and the building, above the floor, should be provided with 

 large windows, which are to be kept open during the process of dry- 

 ing. In such a kiln, there should be eight charcoal fires, made at 

 the bottom, at equal distances, which are to be kept steadily burning 

 while the hops are drying ; spread th-em ten inches deep on the cloth 

 floor, and not move them until the steam is done rising, when they 

 should be gently stirred until they are dry. After the hops begin to 

 sweat from ihe heat below, I put on to the fires four small kettles, 

 containing one-quarter of a pound each, of roll brimstone ; and when 

 it is consumed, add another one-quarter each, until I give three-quar- 

 ters of a pound to each kettle. I find that brimstone improves the 

 color of the hops, dissipates that strong vine or leafy smell, which 

 they always have without it, and which is to be detected in any 

 article of which the hop is an ingredient. In good seasons, an ordi- 

 nary crop is fifteen hundred pounds to the acre. I sold my crop this 

 fall, for $172.50. 



Very respectfully, 



EZRA LELAND. 



BARLEY. 



Holyoke Spring Farm, Lyn7i, Mass. , Jan. 21st, 1845. 



The Barley exhibited by- me at the last Fair of the American Insti- 

 tute, was grown on reclaimed meadow j soil dark loam, 8 to 12 inches 

 deep; subsoil, hard clay. In 1842 it was underdrained and a good 

 crop of barley raised on the same field ; about 40 barrels of fish, (cost 

 25 cents per barrel, delivered within one mile of the place) were 

 spread on the stubble and plowed in, and a very heavy crop of round 

 turnep grew in the fall. In 1843 it was planted with corn, manured 

 in the hill with manure made under the barn, a small shovel full to a 

 hill, and in June or the first of July, two fish were put by each hill 

 and covered with a hoe. For the crop of barley, of which a sample 

 was exhibited, no additional manure was applied. On the 15th of 

 April, 1844, the corn hills were split by running a large one horse 

 plow on each side of the corn stubble. The corn was not hilled up, 

 but at the last plowing the furrows were turned towards the corn that 

 the surface water might easily run off, the ground being flat. When 

 plowed for barley, the ground was wet, but dried soon after breaking 

 and without clodding. On the l8th it was fully dry, and was then 

 harrowed across the furrows, tearing up the cornstalks and leveling 

 the surface ; some parts of the field were harrowed two or three times, 

 and all so much as to effectually pulverize the soil. The seed was 

 soaked from 12 to 18 hours in a solution of poudrette, (two quarts , 

 of poudrette to five gallons of rain water,) and all the seed that did 

 not sink after standing about two hours, were carefully skimmed off. 

 About one-eighth of an acre was sown with unsoaked seed, and the 

 difference could be very easily distinguished ; that from the soaked 

 seed being more than a week earlier, while the straw was much 

 longer, but there was no perceptible difference to the eye in the grain 



