290 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



rent, at thirty pounds, or one hundred and fifty dollars, per acre ; 

 but by many it is estimated much higher. Twenty pounds, or 

 one hundred dollars, are sometimes paid as rent, per acre, for hop 

 land. In spite of all these uncertainties, perhaps the more on 

 account of them, men full of adventure plunge with eagerness 

 into the cultivation ; and the betting upon the amount of excise 

 duty paid to the government which, of course, is the index of 

 the amount of product is prevalent throughout the hop district, 

 from the largest grower to even the lowest picker and packer. 



It is desirable that only the same kind of hops should be 

 planted in a field, so that the ripening may be uniform. It is 

 important that the hops should be of a bright golden color, and 

 full of aroma, or what is here called lupulin, which gives its 

 value to the hop. The bines, at the season of harvest, are cut 

 about three feet from the ground, lower than that is injurious to 

 the plant, from excessive bleeding ; and the poles are then lifted 

 from the ground, and laid upon frames, when the picking begins. 

 This, in favorable weather, is a merry season ; and pickers come 

 from distant places, men, women, and children, (many of them 

 of the gypsy race,) encamping in the neighborhood under their 

 rude tents, constructed of hop poles covered with a coarse blan 

 ket, with loose straw for their beds ; and others, men, women, 

 and children, are glad to find a lodging in some outhouse or shed, 

 like pigs in a sty, with little regard to the decencies of life. In 

 general, they provide for themselves ; though the owner is careful 

 to have a good supply of bread and potatoes, as they may be 

 required. 



The hops are picked in large baskets, which are gauged by 

 marks ; and an accountant is always in the field, to oversee the 

 picking. They are sorted as they are gathered, the discolored 

 and inferior being put by themselves. The price for picking 

 varies from two pence to three and a half pence per bushel, or 

 from four to seven cents. From five to seven bushels is con 

 sidered a fair day s work, though I saw one woman, who had, in 

 one day, picked eighteen bushels. Whole families, especially 

 mothers and children, capable of doing any thing, are in requisi 

 tion ; and the babies are laid upon the ground, to take their first 

 lessons in hop-picking, as they may be able to receive them. 



The hops, being picked, are at once conveyed to the kilns, or, 

 as they are called, oasts, to be dried without delay. A night s 



