HOP-VINE HYPENA. 323 



3. THE HOP. 



AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 



Eating numerous holes of various sizes in the leaf, often consuming nearly- 

 all the leaves except their veins; a small pale green worm with whitish 

 ' stripes and black dots placed symmetrically. 

 The Hop-vine Snout-moth, Hypena Hamuli, Harris, H. rostralis ? Linnjeus. 

 (plate 1, fig. 1.) 



Although throughout our countiy generally, no attention is 

 given to the cultivation of the hop, it is a staple product of a 

 few of the central counties of our own State, and at times a most 

 lucrative crop, yielding its growers munificent returns. Nearly 

 three-fourths of all the hops produced in the United States are 

 raised in the State of New- York, the single county of Otsego, 

 according to the cenus of 1850, yielding over a million of pounds, 

 and the adjoining counties of Madison, Oneida, and Herkimer each 

 much surpassing any other districts of similar extent in any part 

 of our country. 



In England, where the hop has been extensively cultivated 

 for a long time, it is well known that it is liable to be severely 

 depredated upon at times, by insects; insomuch that the revenue 

 which the government derives from this source is extremely 

 fluctuating, frequently varying to the amount of half a million 

 of dollars per annum. And Kirby and Spence, alluding to this 

 subject, say : " The hop-grower is wholly at the mercy of insects. 

 They are the barometer that indicates the rise and fall of his 

 wealth." In our own country this crop appears to be similarly 

 exposed to injury from this class of beings, that it is abroad. 

 The larvae of the insect which we have named above, is with us 

 the most universal and formidable of these depredators, making 

 their appearance suddenly, and in a few days sometimes, and 

 before their presence is noticed, completely riddling and destroy- 

 ing the. leaves of whole fields. 



These worms begin to appear upon the leaves as early as the 

 fore part of June, and by the middle of that month they will be 

 found of all sizes. The vines are now rapidly climbing the poles, 

 and the older leaves, near the ground, where the dense foliage 

 enables the worms to secret themselves more securely, are those 



