Till-: CULTIVATION OF FARM CJiOPS. 



sort that is being cultivated. Horse and hand-hoeing should be vigorously 

 carried on as long as practicable. 



The crop should be ready for lifting by the middle of October. If the 

 weather is tin.- and free from frost, the roots are the better for remaining 

 a few days in the field before being hauled off. They are stored in heaps 

 and if sand can be readily obtained, it is a good plan to mix a quantity 

 with the roo- 



HOPS. Hops require a rich, and highly manured loam, elaborate culti- 

 vation, a sheltered position, and a suitable climate in order to success. 

 crop, worth sometimes more than the price of the land annually, pro- 

 vides in successful years such an addition to the revenue of any farm 

 suitable for its cultivation that it is very apt to absorb to itself an undue 

 share of the means at the command of the farmer ; and the general a 

 culture of a district where this crop prevails is apt to suffer in this way. 

 iieltered field, of naturally suitable soil deep, fertile, and well drained 

 shuuld be selected. It is deeply ploughed, subsoiled, and manured in 

 autumn. Cuttings, oY shoots of any approved sort, which have been speci- 

 ally reared, are then planted in rows 6 feet apart, 4 being planted in every 

 "hill," (') feet apart in the rows. Some growers plant two or three hills 

 with male plants in order to ensure the proper fertilization of the seed. 

 This planting should be done early in spring. The wide interspaces are 

 sometimes turned to account during the first year in the growth of pota- 

 i>r cabbages. Each hill has a short pole placed near it which is fixed 

 before summer and to which the young vine is tied. There is rarely any 

 th' first year. The spaces are well cultivated both ways, and 

 vily manured the richest farm dung and every available fertilizer 

 1 1 ployed in quantities unknown in the case of any other crop. Th i 

 1 and manured in early spring,. the hills severally 

 ;>-d with spud and hoe, useless suckers cutaway, and the hills re-pol-d : 

 this time with thn-e l<>ni^-r poles to a hill. The intervals continue t- 



bed with a special horse-hoe; the bine is tied to the poles p-r- 

 ee 1-iin'*; to arh. The hills are properly earthed up with shovels- 

 full "f .-arth in tin- .-nd of May. Tln-n- may bd8Om trimming and prun 

 ;iivd in case of Mron^ <_;m\\th in June. And the hops are hand- 

 as soon as fit, i. e., at a stau- of ripeness which is ivco U niUal>lr only 

 lit'iicc. Tli'-y an- earri-d to the kiln, dried, packed and sold. 



tripped and Marked on th-- ground or und. and 



louk.-d over, and ivpl.'iiishrd l.ei'oiv Bpl IM round, when 



a^a'lM p 



