174 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



*' The English Cluster an-d Grape hop are the varieties mos 

 esteemed ia market. The roots should be set eight feet apart 

 each way. A free exposure to the sun and air is as necessarj^ to 

 the hop vine as to the grape. The common plan of training a 

 mass of hops up a twenty or thirty foot pole is as detrimental to 

 the perfect development of the fruit as would be the same method 

 with the grape vine. The fruit-bearing arms, few of which are 

 thrown out less than seven feet from the ground, need to hang 

 freely in the air to do well. In the horizontal method of training 

 hops four vines are allowed to run up a stake seven feet in height, 

 when they are separated and trained upon twines stretched across 

 the yard in both directions, by which means the fruit-bearing arms, 

 hanging freely from the twines, receive all the light, heat and air 

 requisite to ripen the fruit and prepare it for harvest several days 

 earlier than hops grown by their side upon long poles. The twine 

 used may be that known as wool twine or broom-makers' twine, 

 either flax or hemp. The best Avay is for each hop-grower to raise 

 a bed of flax and hire his twine spun. A man or boy upon horse- 

 back, with a basket of twine fastened to a belt, should put the 

 twine upon the stakes. Fastening it securely to the strong outside 

 stake, he should ride along the row, winding it once around each 

 stake, at the top, to the end of the row, where it is again secured. 

 The same process is repeated for each row in both directions, and 

 thus a net-work of twine is spread over the yard seven feet above 

 the ground. Occasionally the hop-grower should ride through 

 the yard and place the vines upon the strings. Standing with his 

 back to the stake he should place the vine over the string with his 

 right hand, and receive it underneath with his left — to let it grow 

 with the sun, and it will show no tendency to leave the twine. 



" The stakes may be either small round, split, or sawed, except 

 the outside rows, which should be as strong as ordinary hop poles. 

 They should be cut eight feet in length, and set one foot in the 

 ground. The outside rows of stakes in each direction should be 

 placed one row outside of the outer row of hop plants ; this will 

 prevent any crowding in the outer rows of the yard, and add 

 much to the neatness of its appearance. Indeed, I do not know of 

 anything more beautiful in the line of agriculture, than a hop 

 yard trained as thoroughly as it should be in this manner. That 

 it is the most profitaljle cro]) a farmer can raise does not prevent 

 its also being the most attractive to an artistic eye. 



" The saving in the expense of training a yard in this manner is 



