8 



AGRICULTURE. 



by keeping the heat np through the night. A 

 twenty-foot kiln will thus dry 400 bushels in 

 a day, as they come from the vines, making 

 about 750 pounds of hops when dry. 



"Haling. The hops being dried, the next 



Srocess is to bale them. This should not be 

 one immedately after they are taken from the 

 kiln, but they should be allowed to lie a few 

 days in the store-room till they become a little 

 softened, otherwise their extreme brittleness will 

 cause them to be much broken in baling and the 

 sample be thereby greatly injured. The bales 

 should be of symmetrical and convenient form, 

 and should contain about 200 pounds. They are 

 formed in a box or bin prepared for the purpose, 

 in the press-room, of such shape as will give 

 the desired size and form. Across the bottom 

 and sides of this box the baling cloth is first 

 laid, and the hops are then let down into it 

 from above, and trodden down as they are 

 dropped in until it is filled. Another cloth is 

 then carried over the top, a follower applied, 

 and the screws of the press turned down upon 

 it until the whole is brought into a compact 

 mass. The box is then taken apart, the cloth 

 neatly secured round the bale, the screws are 

 run up, the bale taken out and the ends cased, 

 when it may be considered finished, and the 

 same process is repeated in forming another." 



We have referred to the diseases and injuries 

 to which the hop is liable. These are numer- 

 ous, more so hi England, perhaps, than in the 

 United States, but the most destructive here 

 are the aphis or hop-louse and the mould. 



Dr. Harris, in his "Insects Injurious to Vege- 

 tation," thus describes the aphis, a genus which 

 commit serious ravages on many of our decidu- 

 ous plants and trees, but on none, perhaps, are 

 more destructive than on the hop : 



" The winged plant-lice provide for a succes- 

 sion of their race by stocking the plants with 

 eggs in the autumn. These are hatched in the 

 spring, and the young lice immediately begin to 

 pump up the sap from the tender leaves and 

 shoots, increase rapidly in size, and in a short 

 time come to maturity. In this state it is found 

 that the brood, without a single exception, con- 

 sists wholly of females which are wingless, but 

 are in a condition immediately to continue their 

 kind. Their young, however, are not hatched 

 from eggs, but are produced alive, and each 

 female may be the mother of fifteen or twenty 

 young lice in the course of a single day. The 

 plant-lice of this second generation are also 

 v i unless females, which grow up and have their 

 young in duo time; and thus brood after brood 

 Is produced, even to the seventh generation or 

 more, without the appearance or intermixture, 

 throughout the whole season, of a single male. 

 Tlii-- pxtrordiatry propagation ends in the au- 

 tumn with the l.irth of a brood of males, which 

 in due time acquire wings, and pair; eggs are 

 tlu-n laid !,y tin- f.-mak-s, and with the death of 

 these winged individuals, which soon follows, 

 > e r ii ict for the season." 



The eggs of these insects are not destroyed by 



cold or wet, and only multiply more rapidly in 

 drought. Wet weather, long continued, does 

 somewhat hinder their development, but ex- 

 poses the plant to injury from mould. Morton, 

 in his " Cyclopedia of Agriculture," thus de- 

 scribes the effect of their attacks upon the hop 

 vine : 



"When the first attack of these upon the 

 hops is severe, and early in the season, the 

 growth of the plant is commonly stopped in the 

 course of three or four weeks. If the attack 

 be late that is, about midsummer, or after- 

 wards the bine has then attained so much 

 strength that it struggles on against the blight 

 to its disadvantage, and the result is a total 

 failure of the crop at last ; for the leaves fall 

 off", and the fruit-branches being already formed, 

 there is no chance of recovery. At this time 

 and in this condition the stench from the hop 

 plantation is most offensive. In an early blight, 

 however, we may have many instances recorded 

 of extraordinary recoveries ; for these insects are 

 remarkably susceptible of atmospherical and 

 electrical changes, and on a sudden alteration 

 of the weather we have known them perish by 

 myriads in a night. The condition of a plant 

 is never hopeless, however severe the attack 

 may be, provided there is time for it to put 

 forth its lateral or fructifying branches. 



"Their multiplication is so rapid that the 

 leaves become so thickly covered as scarcely to 

 allow a pin to be thrust between them. They 

 quickly abstract the juices of the bine, so that 

 the Leaves assume a sickly brown hue, and curl 

 up, and the bine itself ceases to grow, and falls 

 from the pole, the lice continuing till they perish 

 for want of food; and thus, without the inter- 

 vention of a favorable change, the crop is de- 

 stroyed, and the grower may often consider 

 himself fortunate if the plant recover a due 

 amount of vitality to produce a crop in the fol- 

 lowing year. 



" When atmospherical change occurs, the lice 

 die off by thousands in a day. As they die 

 they turn a brown color. The first indication 

 of a favorable change is the clustering of the 

 lice to the extremities of the bines and branches. 

 This fact is well worthy of notice, since to all 

 but close and accurate observers of the hop 

 plant, the outward appearance is the reverse 

 of a favorable change ; for the small leaves and 

 heads of the bines are densely covered with 

 lice. But while the lice are thus gathering in 

 countless myriads at the extremities, apparently 

 threatening the utter destruction of the plant, 

 the large leaves at the bottom of the bine and 

 the leaves of the branches next the stem are 

 becoming clean. At this clustering period the 

 lice evidently cease to suck the juices of the 

 plant ; for the attentive observer will perceive, 

 the bine resuming its erect position, and recom- 

 mencing its upward growth, though still covered 

 with lice. At this crisis they usually disappear 

 altogether in the course of a week or ten days, 

 and then the plants should be liberally reward- 

 ed, if not lavishly stimulated, with manure, 



